1 adh EEL ei ee 
Foe tint firton Nam Ratti HE ; 
ag nr Pn 


hn an Pite 
tha esa Mame Po 
‘ oer - . “ie 
, ~ ig eM ea alent oer met ay al 
ae 


: ease Tae ae 
githe Tin en pate as aslatatn bas te 


hee eer es 3 
: re) e ‘ me bbe 
rari cai Rar Bieta Sih ete ietci Pa spear sate 
~ : : 4 acme: *, eae 


ta theese me ae 
& sharpen eaenel nic Pai sare 





i SCPE SENS 
a Sao PRR Eoie ee 
é 2 


Library of The Theological Seminary 


PRINCETON ° NEW JERSEY 


6 <a) 


PRESENTED BY 
The Author 





The Gospel of J 


A complete analytical exposition 


of the Gospel of John 





Byawe 
A:no CLEMENS GAEBELEIN 
Editor of “Our Hope” 


PUBLICATION OFFice “Our Hopr” 


456 FourtTH AVENUE 


New York, N. Y. 
And All Booksellers 


Copyright 1925 





Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/gospelofjohn00gaeb 


CONTENTS 


Page 
Chapter sR Ara iSite SNOB eal weet RENO A ES 11 
Chapter Da Pc auetala Do! averel stele area ee kee ovate ste L Cran 46 
Gap ter ML EL were ee we MeR en He eMC eM Ne 55 
Chapter UA as SA ea Mi early pet i Ame lA) 82 
Chapter NST bara ae MU a ORIGIN HW rear tet 98 
Chapter MLE Gao Svinte neote Monten reoR' agarnta cringe 116 
ROTA DLC IN VAL LS ess pias ciaenee tes ad cae ada a orate p tema 139 
SHAD ECHR V LU eaten on i cre is ula sy ieee ees ape ins 154 
sel SE oath ci Bh Gh pein pa MU ager uate cere AUT an UG NA i ay 168 
Chapter Dy RA 7 NEA AT i Ca rk Gat aA 178 
UNE ep eve Spek De G) Nec ABI etal aida) aia Hay een ta IG et VAG 193 
DETR ND erenis cor Une stALien trem Ml Menai oui MTV arar vat 218 
READ TOT TN LULA WORN ey We LEA Ray tea setand War uty! Aan a 244 
MOTT ADL ETRE UNL Vc ee ence ry mit ole VausiaN ann ue DON: IAL ah 263 
SA DECT WIP BON cise Uk hen stat we ahaha ute Har A ARR E 292 
CP VOL CE Ne VD giitstiys foes Sen mates aRilletaMnMiRat, comune ie 302 
ROTEATS CCK AVL Lise Gyan siie bia\ i Sen BURN HLM WRU AINE iL 311 
REE OCOTIONV LER fe alah Ch aia ci desir aida Cra MG ain 336 
PTE CFR SG BY i Ay SEM RESTA Rs URIS a oll ROR RO 353 
RG rater atacuen yt coe atu ager si cre Kiel SOavaiarene tain Cian, raretig RAL 379 


CAEP oso 1D, OG Bet Teh ant. be OUP, AAR ee Na 402 





INTRODUCTION 


The fourth Gospel has been ascribed from earliest times 
to the beloved disciple, the Apostle John. He was one of 
the sons of Zebedee. His mother Salome was especially 
devoted to the Lord. (See Luke vii:3; xxiii:55, and Mark 
xvi:l). He knew Him from the beginning of His ministry 
and had followed Him with much love and faithfulness, 
and seems to have been the most beloved of our Lord. He 
never mentions his name in the Gospel, but nevertheless 
speaks of himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved (Chapter 
xiii:23; xix:26; xx:2; xxi:7, 20, 24). With James and Peter 
he was singled out to witness the transfiguration and to go 
with the Lord to the garden of Gethsemane. The three also 
were present when the Lord raised the daughter of Jairus 
from the dead (Mark v:37). John was likewise an eye- 
witness of the sufferings of Christ (xix:26, 35). 


The Johannine Authorship. 


The Johannine authorship of the fourth Gospel is proven 
by the testimony of the Church-fathers. Theophilus of 
Antioch, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus, 
Origen, Dionysius of Alexandria, Eusebius, and above all, 
Irenaeus, speak of this Gospel as the work of the Apostle 
John. Other ancient authorities might be added. Of great 
value is the testimony of the two most pronounced enemie 
of Christianity, Porphyry and Julian. Both speak of the 
Gospel of John, and neither one doubted that the Apostle 
John wrote this document. Had there been any evidence 
against the Johannine authorship we may rest assured that 
these two prominent adversaries would have made good use 
of it to reject the authenticity of the Gospel, which empha- 
sizes so fully the absolute Deity of Christ. 

The most interesting and conclusive evidence for the 
Johannine authorship is furnished by Irenaeus and Polycarp. 
Polycarp had known the Apostle John personally, and 
Irenaeus knew Polycarp. Ina letter to his friend Florinus, 
Irenaeus wrote as follows: 

“I can describe the very place in which the blessed Poly- 
carp used to sit when he discoursed, and his goings out and 


6 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 

his comings in, and his manner of life, and his personal 
appearance, and the discourses which he held before the 
people, and how he would describe his intercourse with 
John and with the rest who had seen the Lord, and about 
His miracles, and about His teaching, as having received 
them from eye-witnesses of the life of the Word, would 
relate altogether in accordance with the Scriptures.” 

Now Irenaeus who had known Polycarp the friend and 
companion of the Apostle John, speaks of the Gospel of John 
as the work of the Apostle John; he treats the entire fourth 
Gospel as a well-known and long used book in the Church. He 
does not mention what authority he had for doing this. 
There was no need for it in his day, for everybody knew that 
this Gospel had been written by John. ‘‘When Irenaeus who 
had conversed with Polycarp, the friend of the ApostleJohn, 
quotes this Gospel as the work of the Apostle, we may 
fairly presume that he had assured himself of this by the 
testimony of one so well capable of informing him.’’* ‘This 
strongest evidence for the Johannine authorship has been 
ably stated by R. W. Dale of Birmingham in the following | 
words:—“Irenaeus had heard Polycarp describe his inter- 
course with John and the rest who had seen the Lord; this 
must have been long after John’s death, perhaps as late as 
A. D. 145, or even A. D. 150, for Irenaeus lived into the 
third century. Was the Fourth Gospel published before 
that time? Then Polycarp must have spoken of it; if John 
had not written it, Polycarp would have denied that it was 
genuine; and Irenaeus, who reverenced Polycarp, would 
never have received it. But if it was not published before 
that time, if it was unknown to John’s friend and disciple 
forty or fifty years after John’s death, then, again, it is 
incredible that Irenaeus should have received it.” 

Polycarp’s martyrdom was in the year A. D. 155 or 
A. D. 156. He had known John; and for more than fifty 
years after the death of John he was one of the trustees and 
guardians of John’s memory. During a great part of that 
time he was the most conspicuous personage among the 
Churches of Asia Minor. Nor did he stand alone. He 
lived to such an advanced age, that he probably survived 


*Dean Alford, Greek N. T. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 7 


all the men who had listened with him to John’s teaching; 
but for thirty or forty years after John’s death there must 
have been a large number of other persons who would have 
associated themselves with him in rejecting a Gospel which 
falsely claimed John’s authority. While these persons lived, 
such a Gospel would have had no chance of reception; 
and for thirty years after their death, their personal friends, 
who had heard them speak of their intercourse with John, 
would have raised a great controversy if they had been asked 
to receive as John’s a Gospel of which the men who had 
listened to John himself had never heard, and which con- 
tained a different account of our Lord from that which 
John had given. But within thirty years after the martyr- 
dom of Polycarp our fourth Gospel was universally regarded 
by the Church as having a place among the Christian Scrip- 
tures, and as the work of the Apostle John. ‘The conclusion 
seems irresistible; John must have written it. 


The Defeat of the Critics. 


The Johannine authorship of this Gospel was first doubted 
by an English clergyman by name of Evanson, who wrote 
on it in 1792. In 1820 Prof. Bretschneider followed in the 
history of the attack upon the authorship of this Gospel. 
Then came the Tubingen school, Strauss and Baur. Baur, 
the head of the Tubingen school gave the year 170 as the 
date when the Gospel of John was written; others put the date 
at 140; Keim, another critic, at 130; Renan between 117 and 
138 A. D. But some of these rationalists were forced to 
modify their views. The Tubingen school was completely 
defeated and is now the dead thing of the past. We could 
fill many pages with the views and opinions of these critics 
and the answers which able scholars who maintain the 
orthodox view, have given to them. This, we are sure, is not 
needed for true believers. The ripest and the best scholar- 
ship declares now that the fourth Gospel was written by 
John. Well said Neander, ‘“This Gospel, if it be not the 
work of the Apostle John, is an insoluble enigma.” 

While the correct year in which the Gospel of John was 
written cannot be given, it seems quite evident that it was 
about the year 90 A. D. 


8 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


The Purpose of the Gospel of John. 


Modern critics of this Gospel have opposed the genuineness 
of it on the ground of the radical diversity between the views 
of the Person of Christ and His teachings as presented in 
the Gospel of John and the Synoptics. Such a diversity 
certainly exists, but it is far from being an evidence against 
the genuineness of this Gospel. It is an argument for it. 

The synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, were 
already in existence for several decades and their contents 
known throughout the Church. If an uninspired writer, 
some other one than John the Apostle, has undertaken to 
write another Gospel, such a writer would, in some way 
at least, have followed the story which the synoptics so 
closely follow. But the Gospel of John is, as already stated, © 
radically different from the three preceding Gospels, and yet 
no critic can deny that the Gospel of John reveals the same 
wonderful Person who is the theme of the other Gospel 
records. Matthew wrote the Jewish Gospel, describing our 
Lord as the King; Mark makes Him known as the true 
Servant, and Luke pictures the Lord as the perfect Man. 
Thus the Synoptics emphasize His true humanity and show 
Him forth as the minister of the circumcision. The first 
two Gospels at least belong as much to the Old Testament _ 
as they belong to the New. ‘True Christianity is not fully 
revealed in these Gospels. They move on Jewish ground. 
And what had taken place when finally the Holy Spirit 
moved the Apostle John to write his Gospel? The nation 
had completely rejected their Lord and King. The doom 
predicted by the Lord Jesus had fallen upon Jerusalem. 
The Roman army had burned the city and the temple. 
The Gentiles had come into the vineyard and the nation’s 
dispersion among all the nations had begun. ‘These facts 
are fully recognized by the Spirit of God in John’s Gospel. 
This we find on the very threshold of this Gospel. “He 
came unto His own, and His own received Him not” 
(John i:11). That Judaism was now a thing of the past is 
learned from the peculiar way in which the Passover-feast 
is mentioned. ‘‘And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was 
nigh” (vi:4; also ii:13; xi:55). The Sabbath and the Feast 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 9 


of Tabernacles are spoken of in the same way (v:1; vii:2). 
Such statements that the divinely given feasts were but 
“feasts of the Jews”, are not found in the Synoptics. In 
John’s Gospel these statements show that we are outside of 
Judaism. Hebrew names and titles are translated also and 
the Gentile meaning is given. Messiah, which is interpreted 
Christ, (1:41). Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, 
Master (1:38). The place of a skull, which is called in 
Hebrew, Golgotha (xix:17), etc. ‘This is another evidence 
that Judaism is no longer in view. 

But something else had happened since the three first 
Gospels had been written. The enemy had come in per- 
verting the truth. Wicked apostates and anti-Christian 
teachers asserted themselves. They denied the Person of 
the Lord, His essential Deity, the virgin birth, His finished 
work, His physical resurrection, in one word, ‘“‘the doc- 
trine of Christ.”” A flood of error swept over the Church.* 

“Gnosticism”? was corrupting the professing church every- 
where. This system spoke of the Lord Jesus as occupying 
the highest rank in the order of spirits; they also denied the 
redemption by His blood and the gift of God to believing 
sinners, that is, eternal life. God in His infinite wisdom | 
held back the pen of the Apostle John till these denials had 
matured, and then he wrote under divine guidance the final 
Gospel in which the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the 
Only-Begotten, the Second Person of the Godhead, is made 
known in the fulness of His Glory. Linked with this mar- 
velous picture of Him, Who is the true God and the Eternal 
Life, is the other great truth made known in the fourth 
Gospel. Man is dead, destitute of life; he must be born 
again and receive life. And this eternal life is given by the 
Son of God to all who believe on Him. It is communicated 
as a present and abiding possession, dependent on Him, 
Who is the source and the Life as well. At the same time 





*The Epistle of John, besides the early Christian literature, bear 
witness to this fact. See 1 John ii:18 23; iv:1-6. Men were scattering 
the anti-Christian doctrines everywhere, so that the Spirit of God 
demanded the severest separation from such. ‘“‘If there come any unto 
you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not in your house, neither 
bid him God speed. For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker 
of his evil deeds”? (2 John:10-11). An exhortation which is in force 
for all times. 


10 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


the Third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, is revealed 
in this Gospel as He is not revealed in the Synoptics. The 
Gospel which reveals the Eternal Life is necessarily the 
Gospel in which the Holy Spirit as the Communicator, 
Sustainer and Perfecter is fully made known. The Gospel 
of John is therefore the New Testament Gospel, the good 
news that Grace and Truth have come by Jesus Christ. It 
makes known what is more fully revealed in the doctrinal 
Epistles. 

~~ The last chapter in which we hear the Lord Jesus Christ 
speak, before His passion, is the seventeenth chapter. He 
speaks to the Father in the great prayer rightly called “‘the 
high priestly prayer.” In it He touches upon all the great 
truths concerning Himself and His own made known in this 
Gospel, and we shall also find that all the great redemption 
truths given in their fulness by the Holy Spirit in the Epistles, 
are clearly revealed in this prayer. 


John’s Own Testimony. 


At the close of the twentieth chapter of this Gospel we find 
John’s own testimony concerning the purpose of this Gospel. 
‘“‘And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His 
disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are 
written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the 
Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through 
(in) His Name.” Thus the twofold purpose of the fourth 
Gospel is given by the Apostle—Christ the Son of God and 
the Life He gives to all who believe. 

The characteristic features of this Gospel are too numerous 
to mention in this introductory word. We shall point them 
out in the exposition. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Uy 


CHAPTER I. 


Verses 1-18. The opening verses (1-4) manifest the 
character of the fourth Gospel. The Synoptics (Matthew, 
Mark and Luke) begin with historical statements concern- 
ing the wonderful Person who walked among men. The 
Gospel of John opens with a doctrinal revelation of that 
same Person. The beloved disciple is the chosen instrument 
of the Holy Spirit to reveal the full glory of the Son of God, 
the Only-begotten of the Father, tabernacling among men 
and manifesting Him. We find nothing said in this Gospel 
of Him as the son of David and the son of Abraham. The 
character of the Gospel of John is therefore more doctrinal 
than historical. It reveals Him who is the true God and the 
eternal life. He came forth from the Father, with whom He 
is one; He came into the world to reveal the Father and He 
has returned to the Father (chapter xvi:28). And He who 
is the life and light of men communicates eternal life to 
men, so that born again as children of God they are no longer 
in darkness, but know the light and walk in the light. 

The first eighteen verses contain the great truths of His 
Person, His Godhead, that He is the Life and the Light of 
men, that He came into the world which was made by Him 
and that the world knew Him not, and then the great results 
of His coming, for those who receive Him, are mentioned. 
These opening verses contain the entire Gospel of John in 
embryo. 

“In the beginning was the Word.” ‘The definite article 
before “‘beginning” is not found in the Greek, so that the 
literal translation is, “‘In beginning was the Word.” ‘This 
first statement takes us beyond the first verse of the Bible. 
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” 
This is the beginning of creation, but here is another begin- 
ning, a timeless beginning, that beginning without a begin- 
ning, which our finite mind cannot fathom nor understand. 
All things had their beginning, but God has no beginning; 
He has always been. He who is the Word was in the begin- 
ning; He whois before all creation, before all things, and above 
all creation, has no beginning. ‘The little word “was” means 


12 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


“existing.” We hear Him say later in this Gospel, “Before 
Abraham was, I am’; He is the self-existing One. Here 
then we have the sublime revelation that our Lord Jesus 
Christ is an eternal Being. 

But why is He called by John the Word? No other writer 
of the New Testament uses the word Logos. Much of 
interest is connected with this fact. Philo of Alexandria, 
a mystical Jewish philosopher, used the same term, and 
numerous critics have charged the writer of this Gospel 
with having borrowed this expression from Philo. But one 
of the greatest authorities On these ancient sources, Professor 
Harnack, has completely abandoned this theory and states 
that “the Word, as used by the Apostle John, has little 
more in common with the Logos of Philo than the name.” 
Still another reliable scholar declares that ‘‘nothing could 
be more unlike than Philo and John.” ‘The fact is that 
Philo with his mystical speculations spoke of the Logos 
as an undefinable something, as an intermediate agency 
between God and man, but he never spoke of the Logos 
as a person. 

Others have traced the use of the word Logos to the 
Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrew Scriptures in the so- 
called ‘Targumim. ‘These paraphrases employ the word 
“Memra” (the Aramaic equivalent for the Greek Logos) 
whenever God is spoken of as revealing Himself to man. 
All His relations to the world are in these paraphrases ascribed 
to the Memra, the Word. It is so used in hundreds of 
passages. But John could not have copied from these 
exegetical works because they were written several centuries 
after he wrote his Gospel. 

But we do not need to speculate on the use of the expression. 
The Holy Spirit had before spoken of the second person of 
the Godhead as the Word. “By the Word of the Lord were 
the heavens made” (Psalm xxxiii:6); “He sent His Word 
and healed them” (Psalm cvii:20); both passages may be 
interpreted as meaning the Son of God. And the Son of 
God is called the Word, because He is the express image of 
God, just as the invisible thought is made visible by the 
spoken word. He is the revealer and interpreter of the mind 
and the will of God. Martin Luther explains it in a very 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13 


simple way: “Just as a man has a word in his heart, so also 
God in His eternal majesty and Deity has a Thought, a 
Word in His own heart, with Himself. This Word, which 
God the Father has is so entirely one with Him, that there 
is nothing in God which does not also belong to the Word; 
so that when we see the Word we see God.” 

The first sentence then, “In the beginning was the Word” 
reveals the fact that the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
is eternal. He is with God before all things. The second 
statement shows that He is a Person, distinct from God the 
Father, and yet one with Him. “And the Word was with 
God.” Where God was from all eternity there also was the 
Word, the Son of God, sharing His Glory and all His at- 
tributes; their Godhead is one. And the Word was the 
object of God’s eternal Love, for He became not Love 
yesterday, but “‘God is Love.” He has always been Love. 
Of this eternal love-relation the Lord Jesus Christ bears 
witness in His great prayer recorded in this Gospel, ‘‘For 
Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” 
(Chapter xvii:24). 

And then the crowning revelation, “And the Word was 
God.” He therefore is very God and not a creature, an 
angel, or any other being inferior to God. In nature, essence 
and substance He is God. Human language could not make 
it plainer than it is made in this statement, that the Lord 
Jesus Christ is very God. This first verse of the Gospel of 
John is one of the profoundest revelations of the Bible, yet 
so blessedly simple that a child can know its great truth. 
We must likewise remember that throughout this Gospel 
we have the self-witness of our Lord to the three great facts 
concerning Himself as stated in this revelation. The Lord 
testifies of His own eternal existence, “I and the Father 
are one,” ‘‘He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” “‘I 
am in the Father and the Father in me” (Chapter x:30, 
xiv:9-11). How marvelous 1s that fifth chapter in which 
the Lord Jesus Christ confirms by His own words the 
Spirit’s testimony of this first verse! Well has it been said, 
“To maintain in the face of such a text, as some so-called 
Christians do, that our Lord was only a man, is a mournful 
proof of the perversity of the human heart.” And Uni- 


14 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


tarianism and its kin, Christian Science, falsely so-called, 
Russellism (alias International Bible Student Association), 
and Modernism, furnish “the mournful proof of the per- 
versity of the human heart.” How anyone in view of such 
plain statements can maintain that our Lord is only a creature 
and not very God, is hard to believe. But it is written that 
the god of this age blinds the eyes of them that believe not. 
Well has a saint of God said on this verse, “It is rashness 
to search too far into it. It is godliness to believe it. It is 
Life eternal to know it. And we can never have a full 
comprehension of it till we come to enjoy it.” 

“The same was in the beginning with God” (verse 2). 
This is a repetition of the great truth stated in the previous 
verse, the Holy Spirit anticipating the time when men 
would teach that the Lord Jesus Christ was not from all 
eternity a person in the Godhead distinct from God the 
Father, and yet with Him in an eternal and ineffable union. 
The very repetition of it shows its great importance. “Repeti- 
tions in Scripture have divers uses. In prayer they argue 
affection. In prophecy they note celerity and certainty. 
In threatenings they note unavoidableness and .suddenness. 
In precept they mean the necessity of performing them. 
In the truths, like that before us, they serve to show the 
need of believing and knowing them.” 

The next verse takes us into the realm of Creation, the 
beginning of which the first verse of the Bible speaks. “‘AIl 
things were made by Him; and without Him was not any- 
thing made that was made” (verse 3). When the Holy 
Spirit wrote through the Apostle Paul the message to the 
Colossians, who were being influenced by false views on the 
Person and Glory of Christ, He gave the same revelation. 
“For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and 
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be 
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things 
were created by Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16). He is the 
Creator of all things. But that does not mean the creation of 
evil; God is not the author of moral evil. The evolution 
theory practically makes Him that. The question, “If noth- 
ing was made without Christ, from whence came sin?” has 
often been raised by theologians. Sin came in after all things 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 15 


had been created. ‘‘By one man sin entered into the world” 
(Satan’s fall was before that). ‘““IThat sin could not have 
entered without divine permission, and that its entrance has 
been overruled to the display of Divine Love and Grace in 
Redemption, are undeniable truths. But we have no right 
to say that ‘sin?’ was among the ‘all things’ which were 
made by Christ.” 

And this creation, so wonderful in its vastness, and in the 
minutest details, this great Book of Nature, speaks of Him 
and makes known His Glory. Alas! how little we know of 
that revelation of Himself in creation! 

“In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. And 
the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended 
it not.” After we have learned of His Godhead and His 
Creatorship we hear of what was in Him. “In Him was 
life.’ While it is true that He is the source of all life, mere 
physical life is not meant, for the second part of this verse 
declares that this life was the light of men. It must there- 
fore be more than physical life; it is spiritual life. And this 
spiritual life which is in Him is eternal life. He alone is the 
source of eternal life. It is true of Him, ‘‘With Thee is the 
fountain of life; in Thy light we shall see light’? (Psalm 
xxvi:9). John speaks of this in His Epistle, “‘God hath 
given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 
vii). And that life was the light of men; it was active from 
the beginning, and then that life which was with the Father 
was manifested unto us, the Word became flesh. 

“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness 
comprehendeth it not.” Solemn truth this is! The light 
has been constantly shining in the darkness which sin has 
brought into the world, and the darkness isso dense and 
horrible that the light as such cannot banish. The spiritual 
darkness comprehended (or apprehended) it not. The 
commentator Bengel remarks on these five first verses of 
this Gospel, “In the first and second verses of this chapter 
mention is made of a state before the creation of the world; 
in the third verse the world’s creation; in the fourth the 
time of man’s uprightness; in the fifth the time of man’s 
tals 

But how feeble are human words of comment on these 


16 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


wonderful statements on the threshold of this Gospel! 
They are inexhaustible. Only the light of eternity will 
reveal the fullest meaning of them. 

Verses 6-10. He who was sent of God to witness to the 
Light is now introduced in this Gospel. We notice the strik- 
ing contrast between Him, the Son of God, and John. Our 
Saviour is the Creator, John the creature; He is the Life 
and the Light, John a witness, “‘a man sent of God.” His 
person and work as the forerunner is clearly predicetd in the 
Old Testament (Isaiah xl:3, etc.; Mal. iii:1). Of him our 
Lord testified that among them that are born of women no 
greater one hath risen than John the Baptist, and yet the 
least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (Matthew 
xi:10-12). He was born in as miraculous a way as Isaac, 
and was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. 
His great call was to witness to the Light. But he was not 
that Light. In chapter v:35 our Lord speaks of John as 
‘a burning and shining light.” How exact the words of 
God are may be learned by the two words used for Light, 
in connection with our Lord as “the Light’? and John the 
Baptist as a burning and shining light. The Greek word 
used in describing John as a light means “candle,” trans- 
lated thus in Matthew v:15 and Rev. xviii:23. The word 
used to describe our Lord as the Light is the word “Phos” 
—““the Light.” He is the fountain and source of all light. 
And as it has been said, ‘‘What an assurance of a worldfa 
away from God, that the light must have one to proclaim 
it, the Creator must have one to introduce Him into His 
own world. And then it was necessary to say, ‘He was not 
that light,’ lest men should mistake the witness to Christ 
for the Christ he witnessed to.” 

And here we may notice the difference between what is 
said of John the Baptist and his ministry in the Synoptics, 
especially in the Gospel of Matthew, and what we read of 
him here. In Matthew he is heralding the King and pro- 
claims that the promised Kingdom, promised by the Proph- 
ets of God, had drawn nigh. In bearing that witness he 
also witnessed concerning the Light. But why, istthere 
nothing said of this peculiar ministry in John’s Gospel? 
Why do we not read again of that Kingdom being nigh? 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 17 


Why is all this omitted in the fourth Gospel? The reason 
is very simple. Jerusalem and the Temple had been de- 
stroyed some twenty years before the beloved disciple was 
instructed by the Holy Spirit to write. ‘The nation had been 
overtaken by that which the lips of the Son of God had so 
vividly pictured. They had fallen by the edge of the sword 
and were now being scattered among all the nations. When 
John wrote his Gospel, the new dispensation, this present 
dispensation of Grace, had fully set in. Judaism is no longer 
recognized by God and this Gospel repeatedly bears witness 
to this fact, as we hope to show. It is different with the 
synoptic Gospels; these move upon Jewish ground. Judaism 
being set aside, the fact of Israel having rejected the king- 
dom makes it unnecessary to introduce John the Baptist 
as the herald of the King in this Gospel. . The truth is, 
if the forerunner’s witness to Israel were brought into this 
Gospel, it would be all out of keeping with the scope of it. 

His witness was given concerning Christ as the Light, 
that all might believe through him. This does not mean, as 
some expositors have it, through Christ, but through the 
witness of John the Baptist. We must also notice that in 
verse seven the word “‘men”’ is in italics. It does not mean 
that all mankind should believe through hearing the witness 
John bore, but those Jews who were waiting for the conso- 
lation of Israel, who believingly expected the coming of 
Christ as their Redeemer. In this chapter we find later a 
blessed illustration of the results of the witness to Christ 
through John. And Christ is the true Light, yea, the only 
Light. Notice the correct rendering of verse 8. “The 
true Light was that which, coming into the world, lighteth 
every man.” ‘This verse has occasioned much difference of 
opinion. It would take pages to state them all. “These 
words take us beyond the confines of Israel. ‘The true 
Light, lighteth not the Jews only (though it is true that 
only to Israel promises were given), but the true Light 
lighteth every man who is in the world, the Gentiles as well 
as the Jews. He is dispensing Light to all who are in the 
world.* He casts His Light on every human being in the 





*The word “world” as we shall learn from the exposition is on. 
the great characteristic words of the Gospel of John. 


18 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


world. There is much said about heathen darkness, but 
from this we learn that there is heathen light as well. 

But what does the Light find in the world? Nothing but 
the darkest darkness, opposing Him as the true Light. This 
we learn from the next statement: ‘He was in the world, 
and the world was made by Him” (came into being through 
Him), “and the world knew Him not.” Before He ever 
became incarnate and appeared in the creature’s garb on 
earth to make God known to man, He was in the world. 
There was a revelation of Himself in Creation as well as 
a primeval revelation; His Spirit also was at work among 
men, for He said, ‘My Spirit shall not always strive with 
man” (Gen. vi:3). But the world turned away from the 
Light. We find this in the first chapter of Romans: ‘“Be- 
cause that which may be known of God is manifest in 
them, for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible 
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly 
seen, being understood by the things which are made, even 
His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without 
excuse. Because that, when they knew God, they glorified 
Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain 
in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. 
Professing themselves wise, they became fools.” (Rom. 1: 
19-22.) These words are the right comment of the tenth 
verse of the first chapter in John. 

Verses 11-14. He came in the fullness of time, in God’s 
own time, to the nation, which had been specially prepared. 
The advantage of the Jews was that unto them were com- 
mitted the oracles of God. (Rom. iii:2.) Theirs was the 
adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving 
of the law, and the service of God, and the promises. “‘Whose 
are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ 
came, who is over all, God blessed forever.”” (Rom. ix:4, 5.) 
To this nation He was promised, of this nation, as the 
seed of Abraham and the son of David He came, and when 
He came, of whom all their prophets spake, they received 
Him not. It is again of interest to note the two words 
used in the original for “His own.’ He came unto His 
own, which means, what was His own, His own things; 
and His own, His own subjects, recerved Him not. The 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19 


land to which He came, the city and the temple, all were 
His own; and those who should have bowed in homage at 
His feet received Him not. It does not say “they knew 
Him not” (in contrast with the world which knew Him 
not); they deliberately refused to receive Him. They re- 
jected their King. 

The eleventh verse embodies all that which in detail is 
described in the preceding Gospels. How He came to His 
own, manifested Himself in their midst and then was re- 
jected by the nation. This is the story of the Synoptics in 
a nutshell. And now we are led in this Gospel into some- 
thing new, which in the preceding Gospels is not even hinted 
at. With the statement that His own received Him not, the 
way is opened to bring in that which was in the eternal 
purpose of God, though not fully revealed in the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures. His own rejected Him, but what about 
those who receive Him? The answer is blessed indeed— 
“to them gave He the right” (or authority) “‘to become the 
children of God, to those believing on His Name.” It is 
Grace which comes in at this point. Of course, it is all in 
anticipation of the Cross and the great work accomplished 
there in the death of Christ. The world knew Him not; 
the Gentile world had turned away from Him, the Jews 
had rejected Him; all the world is guilty before God. And 
now Grace acts, and this Grace makes of lost sinners chil- 
dren of God by faith in His Name. Nowhere in the Old 
Testament is the sonship of individual believers declared. 
Here for the first time in the Word of God we find the 
precious good news, the Gospel of Grace, that those believing 
on His Name, the Name of a rejected Christ, a Christ who 
died and is risen from the dead, become the children of God. 

Well may we pause here and think. Here is the eternal 
truth of Grace. Here we are face to face with truths which 
remain as long as a race of sinners is on earth. We have 
learned of the human race not apprehending the light, the 
world not knowing Him, the Jews rejecting Him, and God 
in Grace coming in and saving those who are lost, making 
them His children and accomplishing this in ONE way only. 
‘Believing on His Name.” But these great truths, these 
heavenly truths, unchangeable as God is unchangeable, 


20 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


are the truths which are rejected in our day. One of the 
most widespread false teaching today is that which claims 
that all men are children of God, and that if man lives 
right and acknowledges God in some kind of a religion, God 
is his Father and all is well with him. We are reminded of 
the eloquent preacher who, a few years ago, preached on 
the mutilated text of Scripture, ““We are all the sons of 
God.” He preached to his audience the old delusion of a 
Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man and claimed 
that all men are sons of God, and none will be lost. But 
the second half of this verse he omitted—‘“‘We are all the 
sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ.”’ And the latter, per- 
sonal faith in the Son of God, the Christ who died for the 
ungodly, is today not only ruled out, but bitterly opposed 
and ridiculed. 

We pass on to our readers a sad illustration of how men 
gave up the faith in the Gospel, though they once taught it 
and evidently believed. Before us is a commentary on 
John’s Gospel, published half a century ago. The author, 
then a young man, gives an excellent comment on the words 
of verse 12. Let us listen to him: 

““*To become sons of God.’ Sons and therefore (1) par- 
takers of the Divine nature, (2) entitled to walk in freedom 
as children, not in bondage as servants, (3) heirs of God 
and joint heirs with Christ, His only Begotten Son. But 
the full conception of the meaning of this sonship we cannot 
know till in the other world we see Him as He is. . 

“Riven to them that believe on His Name.’ His Name 
is Jesus—t. ¢., Saviour—given to Him because He saves His 
people from their sins. To have faith in that name is to 
have faith in Him as a personal Saviour from sin. Observe, 
then, that this verse comprises the whole Gospel in a sen- 
tence. It declares (1) the object of the Gospel, that we are 
by nature the children of wrath and may become sons of 
God; (2) the source to which we are to look for this pre- 
rogative of sonship: power conferred by God; (3) the 
means by which we are to attain it; personal faith in a per- 
sonal Saviour from sin.” 

Could any one state it better? Yet the hand which wrote 
these words fifty years ago has written since that which 


Th GOSPHI OR TOHN 21 


denies and destroys that faith. The above quotation is 
from the “Commentary of the Gospel of St. John,” by 
Dr. Lyman Abbott. And he is one of the many known as 
no longer holding that faith, which was once and for all 
delivered unto the Saints. 

We must not pass lightly over this great Gospel text: 
“But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right 
to become the children of God, to those believing in His 
Name.” The reader will note that we change the word 
“sons” in the authorized version to “‘children.”? John never 
uses the word “son.” In 1 John iii:1 it is mistranslated, 
as itis here. Not “Behold what manner of Love the Father 
hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of 
God,” but “the children of God.” In John’s writings it 
is always the question of life in Christ, having been born 
again and thus brought into the family of God. Sons of 
God believers are likewise, but the Apostle Paul is used to 
tell us of the fullest meaning of our sonship and heirship 
in Christ. 

And we become children of God by the new birth which 
is a communication of life and nature. ‘‘Who were born, 
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God.” To be thus begotten of God is brought 
about by receiving the Word, believing on His Name, and 
by the action of the Spirit of God. The above negative 
statements answer all the modern inventions which deny 
the new birth. Not of blood, that is by inheritance, as the 
Jews boasted of having Abraham for their father; not of 
the will of the flesh, by reformation, and the efforts of 
themselves; nor of the will of man, by the acts and deeds 
of others, as the religious man does, by looking to an ordi- 
nance or a man-made priesthood to help him. 

The fourteenth verse tells us of the incarnation, the reve- 
lation of God to man, in Him who became man. 

The eternal Word, the Word which was and is God, we 
are now told, became flesh, He took on the human nature. 
In the early Church a system arose under the name of 
Docetism, which was the source of Gnosticism.* One of 


*This wicked system is in some of its teachings reproduced by 
Satanic agencies in ‘‘Christian Science” of our times. 


22 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


the representatives of Docetism was Cerinthus, a contempo- 
rary of the Apostle John. The Docetists believed that our 
Lord had only an apparent human body. We believe the 
term “flesh”? is employed by the Apostle John to show the 
reality of the manhood of our Lord and thus to rebuke 
these false teachers. We might mention here that four 
other heresies are completely answered by John i:14. (1) 
Arianism, which holds that our Lord was not true God. 
This heresy is alive today in Unitarianism, Russellism (In- 
ternational Bible Students, as they call themselves now), 
Christian Science and other cults. The fact that this verse 
states that the Word became flesh, and the first verse of this 
Gospel states that the Word was God, furnishes a perfect 
denial of Arianism. (2) Appollinarianism, which taught that 
our Lord was God and Man, but this system held that our 
Lord only had a human body and not a human soul. The 
word ‘‘flesh’”? contradicts this, for it means a real man with 
body and soul. (3) Nestorianism holds that the Godhead 
made one person, and the manhood another person. ‘This is 
also answered by this text, ‘‘the Word became flesh,” which 
shows union and not separation. (4) Eutychianism con- 
founded the natures of our Lord and taught that Christ is 
from two natures, but not of two natures. This speculative 
theory is also silenced by this statement. And there are 
other false teachings concerning the Person and the nature 
of our Lord. We believe that John 1:14 answers them all. 

The truth stated in this verse is not for reason to explain, 
but for faith to believe. How the two perfect and distinct 
natures were united in one Person, perfect God and perfect 
Man, the finite mind of man cannot explain nor define. 
There is an old Latin inscription, said to date back to the 
first century, which is interesting, as it embodies the faith 
of the beginning. It represents ““The Word” which became 
flesh, giving this self-witness: “I am what I was—that is 
God.”—“T was not what I am—that is man.”—“I am now 
called both, that is both God and Man.” 

The modern heresy which goes by the name “Kenosis”’ 
and which is taught in many of the leading theological sem- 
inaries of today, must be branded as dangerous and wicked 
in the light of the simple statement, ‘““The Word became 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 23 


flesh.” The term signifies “emptying” and is derived from 
Phil. ii:7—“‘He emptied Himself’? (Greek: Ekenosin). This 
theory teaches that in His incarnation our Lord voluntarily 
limited and abridged His divine powers, and that during 
the entire period of His humiliation the divine attributes 
were suspended, and He thought and spake as a mere man. 
In other words, this theory teaches that He ceased to be God 
when He took on the body of man; “The Word became 
flesh” tells us that He did not cease for a moment to be 
God, for He is God manifested in the flesh. He emptied 
Himself of the outward glory which He had with the Father 
before the world was (John xvii:2); He could not empty 
Himself of His Deity. God cannot cease to be God. “It 
was the God-man that lived, suffered, died, and rose again. 
It is written, that God has purchased the Church with His 
own blood. It was the blood of one who was not man only, 
but God.’’* 

Furthermore, the word “flesh”? does not mean that He 
had a body as a true man in which was sin. He did not 
take on ‘“‘sinful flesh.”” He knew no sin, not only in the 
sense that He did not sin, but that He had a nature which 
could not sin. The body He took on in incarnation was 
called into existence by a creative act of the Holy Spirit. It 
was a holy body, a prepared body. No taint of sin or cor- 
ruption was in that body. The eternal Word, as holy as 
God is, for He is God, could never tabernacle in a human 
body which in any way had something of fallen human 
nature in it. The peccability of our Lord is another evil 
doctrine. Many good Christians hold it without realizing 
what an awful dishonor is done by it to our Lord, and 
that the logical consequence is, that if our Lord could have 
sinned and sin was in His human nature, He needed a 
Saviour and could not have been our Saviour. And because 
the body of our Lord, a real human body, had no sin and 
knew no sin, death, which is in the world by sin, had no 
claim on His body. Yet because it was a real human body, 
it was possible for that body to die. When He went to the 
cross, He Who knew no sin was made sin for us and then 
He gave that body as the unspeakable, great sacrifice. Yet 

*Bishop Ryle. 





24 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


that body of flesh given on the cross, which died there, could 
not see corruption. Therefore that body was raised from 
among the dead. In that body He left the world and went 
back to the Father. Sitting at the right hand of God, inter- 
ceding in behalf of His people as a priest and advocate, He 
is still Man as well as God. Christ’s humanity and Deity 
are both in heaven. And when He returns to establish His 
Kingdom He comes in that same body. 

And the Word became flesh ‘‘tabernacled among us.”’ 
This is the better translation, which, however, does not 
mean that the Son of God dwelt in His human body as in 
a tabernacle, which He abandoned when He went back to 
the Father. Well has one said, “Christ continueth now, 
and shall forever, as true Man as when He was born of the 
Virgin. He so took human nature as never to lay it down 
again.” He made His abode with men, tabernacled here 
for thirty and three years. Some blessed coming day, when 
the eternal purposes of God are all accomplished, when the 
new heaven and the new earth have been called into exist- 
ence, He will forever tabernacle with redeemed men. ‘‘Be- 
hold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell 
with them.” (Rev. xxi:3.) 

And He who tabernacled down here for thirty-three years, 
who pitched His tent in His own land, among His own, is 
the same who dwelt of old with Israel, who dwelt in that 
earthly tabernacle, whose glory was seen in the midst of His 
people and whose glory filled the temple. 

‘“‘And we beheld His glory, the glory as of an Only Be- 
gotten with the Father, full of Grace and Truth.” ‘This is 
the witness of John and his fellow disciples. See also John’s 
first Epistle (1 John i:1). They beheld His Glory; they 
were eye witnesses. We doubt not the allusion is mostly 
to the transfiguration, of which John was a witness, and 
where they were, according to the statement of Peter, eye- 
witnesses of His Majesty, when He received honor and glory 
from the Father (2 Peter i:16, 17). But they also beheld 
the Glory of His Deity in His miracles. And He is the 
Only Begotten with the Father. Only John by the Spirit 
of God uses this phrase, “‘the Only Begotten’; it tells us of 
His eternal Sonship. He was always the beloved of God; 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 25 


always with God. And here again we are constrained to 
say, we must believe and not even attempt to explain. 

“The subject is one of those which we must be content to 
believe and reverence, but must not attempt to define too 
narrowly. We are taught distinctly in Scripture that in the 
unity of the Godhead there are three Persons of one sub- 
stance, power and eternity, the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost. We are taught, with equal distinctness, that 
‘Sonship’ describes the everlasting relation which exists 
between the first and second Persons in the Trinity, and that 
Christ is the only begotten and eternal Son of God. We 
are taught, with equal distinctness, that the Father loveth 
the Son, and loved Him before the foundation of the world. 
(John xvii:24). But here we must be content to pause. Our 
feeble faculties could not comprehend more if more were 
folditisy © 

And such a One has opened to a world of sinners the 
riches of God’s fathomless Grace and Truth. He has made 
known Grace and Truth; all Grace and Truth are in Him, 
by Him and through Him. See the blessed foreshadowing 
in Exodus xxxiii:18, 19. 

Verses 15-18. John the Baptist’s witness is next recorded. 
It was given long before this Gospel was written by the 
beloved disciple. In the Greek the verb is in the present tense, 
not “‘bare witness,” but “beareth witness.” While the 
witness-bearer had left the earthly scene, his testimony 
was not dead, but still living and glorifying the Son of 
God. And this is his witness: ‘““He that cometh after me is 
come to be before me, for He was before me.”” John appeared 
first and was, according to the testimony of our Lord, the 
greatest prophet. ‘The Lord Jesus in His ministry came after 
John, but the forerunner now declares that He who came 
after him, has come into a greater place of honor and glory, 
and then the Baptist bears witness of the pre-existence of 
our Lord; John did not say “for He is before me,” but, “for 
He was before me.” 

The sixteenth verse is not the witness of John. It is a 
word of praise, of grateful, adoring acknowledgment of those 
who have believed on His Name and who have found in Him 
“*Ryle on John. 


26 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


all their need and wants supplied. The beloved disciple, by 
the Spirit of God, utters this praise and every individual 
believer may join in. It is the universal praise of the Re- 
deemed, that all their springs, their blessings are in Him, and 
in Christ alone. The fullness here is that fullness of the God- 
head which dwells in Him bodily, as the risen, glorified 
Christ with whom the believer is one. And out of that 
blessed union with Him there flows forth grace upon grace, 
nothing but grace, without measure and without limit. All 
that our souls need is found in Him and supplied by Him, 
grace upon grace. It has been explained to mean “‘grace 
in the place of grace, constant, fresh, abundant supplies of 
new grace, to take the place of old grace, and therefore un- 
failing, abundant grace, continually filling up and supply- 
ing allourneed.”? And that grace which is stored up in Him 
is inexhaustible. Chrysostom said, ‘““The sea is diminished 
if you take a drop from it, though the diminution be imper- 
ceptible; but how much soever a man draw from this 
Fountain, it continues undiminished.” 

The law was given through Moses; it could do nothing 
for man, for it was weak through the flesh, man being a 
sinner without strength (Rom. viii:3). The Son of God 
came and Grace and Truth came to be by Him. He is the 
Truth and manifests the Truth, and Grace is by Him also. 
The remarks of Augustine on this verse are helpful. “The 
law threatened, not helped; commanded, not healed; 
showed, not took away our feebleness. But it made ready 
for the Physician, who was to come with grace and truth.” 
The second giving of the Law (the first tables of stone having 
been broken) brought down the Lord; He descended in a 
cloud and stood with him (Moses) there. And the descended 
Lord proclaimed the name of the Lord. In the proclamation 
of that Name, He said “Abundant in Grace and Truth.” 
And that Lord who descended was none other but the Son 
of God (Exod. xxxiv:4-9). 

It was at that time that Moses prayed “Show me Thy 
Glory.” And he received the answer “Thou canst not 
see my face; for there shall no man see me, and live” 
(Exod. xxxiii:20). No man hath seen God at any time. 
But here is One who has always been with the Father, 


THE GOSPED OP, JOHN 27 


the Only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, 
and He hath declared Him. There can be no question 
in the presence of this positive statement “no man hath 
seen God at any time” that all the manifestations of God 
in Old Testament times were not the manifestations of 
God the Father, but of God the Son. And Christ the 
Son of God is in the bosom of the Father (not was in the 
bosom for He never left that place). It expresses the love- 
place He has, the place of greatest intimacy and affection. 
And as such He came to declare the Father, to make Him, 
who is invisible, visible to man. 

We have concluded with this verse this marvellous 
Opening section of this Gospel. That we have in this 
section one of the greatest revelations of God’s Holy Word 
can never be denied. Still it is denied, and men, calling 
themselves scholars, talk of the Johannine theology, as if 
John’s mind put these great and inexhaustible, fathomless 
statements together. No man could ever conceive such 
wonderful truths as they are put together in these first 
eighteen verses of this chapter. Let us meditate on them 
more and praise God for His wonderful Love and Grace in 
giving us such a Saviour and such a salvation. 

The second half of this chapter introduces this wonder- 
ful person of whom the opening verses bear witness. The 
Evangelist now describes, in His own God-given way and 
manner, that blessed Life in His earthly ministry; the 
historical part begins here. 

Before He appears upon the scene we have the witness 
of John the Baptist. 

Verses 19-28. The witness of John the Baptist as re- 
corded in this Gospel is of a different nature from the re- 
corded witness in the preceding Gospels. There it is the 
witness to the nation, but here he bears witness to the 
person of Him who was about to appear in their midst, 
All that which concerns the nation, the promised kingdom. 
is omitted in this Gospel. The fact that the Jews sent 
priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him who he was, 
shows the effectiveness of his preaching. It must have 
created a great sensation; the delegation was probably sent 
by the Sanhedrim. ‘Then he confessed and denied not. He 


28 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


confessed that he was not the Christ and he did not deny 
who he was. It is a beautiful example of true humility. 
He takes no honor whatever for himself, but Christ is 
the Person whom he desires to honor and to exalt. 

“The greatest saints of God in every age of the Church 
have always been men of John the Baptist’s spirit. In 
gifts, and knowledge, and general character they have 
often differed widely. But in one respect they have al- 
ways been alike; they have been “clothed with humility” 
(1 Peter v:5). They have not sought their own honor. 
They have thought little of themselves. They have been 
ever willing to decrease if Christ might only increase, to 
be nothing so that Christ might be all. And here has been 
the secret of the honor God has put upon them. “He that 
humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke xiv:11). 

“If we profess to have any real Christianity, let us strive 
to be of John the Baptist’s spirit. Let us study humility. 
This is the grace with which all must begin, who would 
be saved. We have no true religion about us, until we 
cast away our high thoughts, and feel ourselves sinners. 
This is the grace which all saints may follow after, and 
which none have any excuse for neglecting. All God’s 
children have not gifts, or money, or time to work, or a 
wide sphere of usefulness; but all may be humble. This 
is the grace, above all, which will appear most beautiful 
in our latter end. Never shall we feel the need of humil- 
ity so deeply, as when we lie on our deathbeds, and stand 
before the judgment-seat of Christ. Our whole lives will 
then appear a long catalogue of imperfections, ourselves 
nothing, and Christ all.’’* 

They did not ask him if he was the Christ. Every real 
Jew believed in the coming of Christ, the Messiah. From 
Luke we learn that John was really suspected of being the 
promised One. “And as the people were in expectation, 
and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were 
the Christ or not” (Luke iii:15).. But was he perhaps Elias? 
He answered very positively, “I am not.” Here we face 
the well known difficulty, how could the John Baptist 
make such a statement when the Lord Himself bore witness 
~ *Ryle on John. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 29 


that John is Elias? “Elijah truly shall first come and re- 
store all things. But I say to you, that Elijah is come al- 
ready, and they knew him not, but have done unto him 
whatsoever they listed . . . then the disciples understood 
that He spoke to them of John the Baptist” (Matt. xvii:11- 
12). The Jews expected Elijah, the literal Elijah to come 
back, before the advent of Messiah. John confesses that 
he is not that Elijah whom they expected and who is pre- 
dicted in Malachi iv:5. Many of the oldest commentators 
like Augustine, Gregory, Jerome and others taught and 
believed a double coming of Elijah. ‘“‘As there are two 
comings of Christ, first to suffer, then to judge, so there are 
two comings of Elijah; first of John before Christ’s first 
coming, who is called Elias, because he came in the manner 
and spirit of Elias; secondly, of the person of Elijah, before 
Christ’s second coming” (Chrysostom). ‘‘Whereas John 
denieth himself to be Elias, and Christ after affirmeth it, 
there is no contradiction. ‘There is a double coming of 
Elijah. The one is in spirit before Christ’s coming to re- 
deem; the other in person, before Christ’s second Coming. 
According to the first, Christ’s saying is true, This is Elias. 
According to the second, John’s speech is true, I am not 
Elias” (Gregory). ‘‘What John was to the first advent, 
Elias will be to the second advent. As there are two ad- 
vents, so there are two heralds” (Augustine). And this 
solves the difficulty. 

They asked him next if he was that Prophet. This 
question is based on Deuteronomy xviii:15. But the prophet 
promised in this passage is Christ Himself. 

From Acts iti:22 we know that “The Prophet like unto 
Moses” is Christ. Evidently the questioners did not know 
that the Prophet promised by Moses is Christ. The tradi- 
tions of the Elders probably taught something different. 

Having only received negative replies from John the 
Baptist, they continued the interview by asking him, 
Who art thou? What sayest thou of thyself? These questions 
he answered by a statement of Scripture. He does not use 
Malachi’s prophecy concerning Elijah, but quotes Isaiah. 
“IT am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make 


30 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


straight the way of the Lord” (Isaiah xl:3).* He claims the 
fulfilment of this prophecy and that this mission is to prepare 
the way for Christ. Again we notice his great humility. 
He speaks of himself as only a voice. He whom he heralds 
is the Lord, Jehovah, but he only a voice crying in the 
wilderness. 

There was no answer from the side of the delegation. 
They probably were in complete ignorance of the claim 
John the Baptist had made. The passage in Isaiah was 
known to them; the meaning of it was hidden from them; 
but John being filled with the Spirit from his mother’s 
womb had applied it to himself. The prominence which 
John gave to water baptism brings forth a second question. 
The inquirers had been sent by the Pharisees, the ritualistic 
sect of Judaism. ‘The action of John, by commanding 
baptism, must have greatly concerned them. “Why 
baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, 
neither that prophet?’ Baptisms at different times and 
with a religious meaning were important ceremonials of 
the sect of the Pharisees. They taught all kinds of ablutions, 
including the washing of hands. They are anxious to know 
why he baptizes, what authority he has in doing it, if he 
is not that Christ or Elijah. Evidently they connected 
Baptism with the coming of Christ. According to ancient 
Judaism, baptism in water is, with circumcision, the essential 
thing for proselytes; without baptism no one could be ad- 
mitted into Judaism. The traditional belief of Judaism was 
that when Messiah comes the nations would all turn to 
Judaism; and it may have been this belief which brought 
forth the question. Baptism was also looked upon by 
ancient Judaism as an expression of penitence. ‘This of 
course was the meaning of John’s Baptism. When those 
who listened to him believed the message and repented, 
they went into the river Jordan and outwardly witnessed 
to their repentance by water baptism. Jordan is the type 
of death. This is proven by the meaning of the word 
Jordan, which is “descending,” and by the typical meaning, 


*It will be learned by reading Isaiah xl that in this chapter there 
is as in so many other prophecies in the Old Testament, a blending 
of the firstsand second coming of Christ. Isaiah xl:1-11 can only 
be fully understood in the light of the Second Coming of Christ. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 31 


as seen in the passage of the children of Israel through 
Jordan. In submitting to John’s baptism and going into 
Jordan the confession was made that death was their due 
on account of their sins. No greater mistake can be made 
than to identify John’s Baptism with Christian Baptism. 
Yet theological writings and commentaries are filled with 
this error. Calvin, for instance, wrote, “it is a foolish mistake 
into which some have been led, of supposing that John’s 
Baptism was different from ours.” Acts xix answers this 
perfectly. There in Ephesus the Apostle Paul found certain 
disciples. They were baptized with John’s baptism, and 
ignorant of the great redemption facts, including the gift 
of the Holy Spirit. Then after Paul had instructed them, 
and when they heard and believed, Paul baptized them again 
in the name of the Lord Jesus. If John’s baptism is the same 
as Christian Baptism, the Apostle Paul would have made 
a colossal blunder in baptizing these disciples the second 
time. John’s Baptism was unto repentance; Christian 
Baptism could then not be instituted. It was given after 
the death and resurrection of our Lord, and is therefore 
into the death of Christ (Rom. vi:3-4). This is also one of 
the numerous arguments against the post-millennial theory 
that when John the Baptist preached the Kingdom, he 
announced the present dispensation. Neither the Kingdom 
preaching of John, nor his Baptism, has anything to do with 
this present dispensation, or with the Church. 

And how it should have thrilled them when this humble 
Prophet, the voice, declared, ‘“There standeth One among 
you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me 
hath come to be before me; the latchet of whose shoes I 
am not worthy to unloose.’”’ How they should have at 
once asked the question, Where is this One? Who is He, so 
that we may know Him? But they are silent. They care 
not to know the One whom John so blessedly exalts in His 
witness. And so it is today in ritualistic Christendom. 

Verses 29-34. It was the next day after the conversation 
with the Jerusalem delegation at Bethany* when the blessed 


*This is not the Bethany where Mary, Martha and Lazarus had their 
home, but another place called by that name near one of the fords of the 
River Jordan. The place cannot be fully located. Bethabara as in 
the Authorized Version is an incorrect reading. 


32 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


One whom John had announced, He who is the Life and the 
Light of men, appeared at the same place. He was not 
present the previous day, and probably came out of the 
wilderness where He had just spent the forty days in fasting 
and prayer, where He had been tested by the Devil. Then 
joyfully John acclaimed Him as the Lamb of God. “Behold 
the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.” 
This shows that John the Baptist knew Him as the Lamb 
of God, the Sin-bearer and the Saviour; he trusted in 
Him and his faith testified of Him. There are some who 
teach that John called Him the Lamb of God on account 
of His meek character, but this view is incorrect. While 
He was meek and lowly, John testified of Him as the One 
who had come to fulfill in His sacrificial death on the cross, 
all which had been foreshadowed in the Old Testament 
dispensation and all which the prophets predicted. He is 
the true Passover-Lamb, the Lamb of whom Isaiah spoke, 
“He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep 
before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth” 
(Isaiah liii:7). The expression John used is so much more 
significant as the Passover was near, which we learn from 
Chapter 11:13. 

Every Jew was familiar with the meaning of the lamb, for 
it was used as the daily sacrifice morning and evening. 
Therefore sacrifice cannot be separated from the lamb; the 
two words belong together. He came to give Himself as the 
sacrifice for sinners. It must be noticed that John did not 
say that He was then taking away, as the Lamb of God, the 
sin of the world. When it says elsewhere in Scripture, “He 
was made sin for us,”’ it does not mean that He was made sin 
in His holy life on earth; He did not take away sin by His 
life. Nor does it say, ‘He will take away sin” nor “has 
taken away,” but “who taketh away the sin of the world.’’ 
It is a broad statement which includes the Person of the 
Saviour, the work He will do and the ultimate, great result 
of His work, the final effect of His sacrificial death. Upon 
the work of Christ as the sin-bearer, the Christ who died 
for our sins according to the Scriptures, the Gospel is preached 
and when believed blessed results follow. Sinners are 
cleansed, saved by grace, born again, made children of 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 33 


God and heirs of glory, are filled with the Spirit and united 
into one body. But all this, infinitely blessed as it is, is far 
from being the full meaning of this statement of John, nor is 
it the ultimate result of the precious work of the Lamb of 
God. We use the words of another. 

“When Christ comes again in His Kingdom, there will bea 
further result; for all creation will then be delivered from the 
bondage of corruption, and Israel will at length look upon Him 
whom they pierced in their blind unbelief. The blessing 
resulting from the sacrifice of Christ will then be far and wide 
extended, but not yet complete. Only the new heavens and 
the new earth (and this exceeds the limited scope of the Jew- 
ish prophets) will behold the ultimate fulfillment; and then 
indeed it will be seen how truly He was “The Lamb of God 
who taketh away the sin of the world.’ For then, and not 
till then will sin have disappeared absolutely and all its active 
consequences. ‘The wicked having been judged and cast 
forever into the lake of fire, as well as Satan and his angels, 
righteousness will then be the footing of God’s relationship 
with the world, not sinlessness as at first, nor dealings in 
Christ in view of sin as since and now, but all things made 
new.’* 

This is wonderfully illustrated by that blessed word 
which came from the lips of the Lamb of God, before He 
bowed His head and dismissed His Spirit—“‘It is finished.”’ 
We find it first in Prophecy in the twenty-second Psalm. 
That Psalm begins with the cry of the forsaken one, “My 
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” the very words 
which came from His lips when the waves and billows of 
divine wrath swept over Him. The Psalm ends with a state- 
ment which is the equivalent of “It is finished”—“He hath 
done.” And between the bitter cry of the cross in the first 
verse of this Psalm, and the exultant declaration of the last, 
we read of those who are His brethren (the Church), that 
Israel too will be saved by Him, that the ends of the earth will 
turn unto the Lord, and that He will get the Kingdoms of the 
earth. Still more striking is the use of this expression, “It 
is done,” which is practically the same as “It is finished,” 
in the book of Revelation. When the seventh Angel pours 
~*Wm. Kelly on John. 


34 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


out his vial, in which the wrath of God is finished (marking 
the end of the great tribulation) we read that a great voice 
out of the temple in glory, from the throne said, “It is done.” 
With this event the Lord returns and takes possession of the 
earth and the kingdoms become His kingdom. The last 
time “It is done” is used is in Revelation xxi:6. ‘And He said 
unto me, It is done.” When? When the new heaven and 
the new earth are come. And of ‘‘God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more 
pain, for the former things are passed away.” It is then that 
the voice is heard, ‘Behold I make all things new—It is 
done.”’ Only then will the meaning of John’s great message 
be completely fulfilled, ““The Lamb of God, who taketh away 
the sin of the world.” 

Let us not overlook the fact that the text does not speak 
of the “‘sins of the world,” but of “‘sin.’’ While it is per- 
fectly true that the work of the Cross is sufficient to save the 
whole world, that the blood was shed for the sin of the world, 
it is only of those who believe that we read that Christ bore 
their sins in His body. But some have said that because 
Christ made atonement for all, and is the Lamb of God who 
taketh away the sin of the world, the whole world will be 
ultimately saved. “I have no doubt,” says an able expositor, 
“from Scripture, that the vast majority of the world’s 
inhabitants will be found at last to have received no benefit 
from Christ, and to have died in their sins. I repudiate the 
idea of universal salvation as a dangerous heresy and utterly 
contrary to Scripture. But the lost will not prove to be lost 
because Christ did nothing for them.” He died for the 
ungodly, and for all there is the possibility of the offer of a 
free and full salvation; those who refuse must die in their sins, 
and die as if Christ had not died for them. 

And then John the Baptist must have pointed to Him, the 
Lamb of God, saying, This is the One of whom IJ bore witness 
yesterday, of whom I told you. After me cometh a man, who 
is come to be before me. Here He stands Himself, He who 
was before me! 

Then he witnesses concerning what had taken place at 
the Baptism of our Lord. He who sent John to baptize with 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 35 


water had given to him this sign, ““Upon whom thou shalt see 
the Spirit descending and abiding on Him, He it is who 
baptizeth with the Holy Spirit.”». When and how John re- 
ceived this sign from God we do not know; he had no doubt 
many revelations from God, but they have not been placed 
on record. And so it was when the Son of God came out of 
Jordan, heaven was opened unto Him, and the Holy Spirit 
descended upon Him like a dove out of heaven and then abode 
upon Him. As we read in the Gospel of Luke, ‘““The Holy 
Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove,” from which 
some conclude that it was not necessarily a real dove, but a 
bodily shape resembling a dove in its downward flight. The 
dove is a beautiful emblem of the Holy Spirit, and also a type 
as we have it in connection with the flood and Noah. The 
Holy Spirit came on the Son of God and found His resting 
place there. This is the Anointing which He received. It is 
foreshadowed in the meal offering, that consisted of a cake 
of fine flour mingled with oil, with no leaven in it. This 
typifies the holy, spotless humanity of our Lord, produced by 
the Holy Spirit. And before the meal offering was baked and 
exposed to the fire, the type of the sufferings of Christ, oil 
was poured upon it (Levit. ii). But the great fact before 
us in this statement is not so much that the Holy Spirit 
descended upon Him, but that He is the Baptizer with the 
Holy Spirit. There is perfect order in this great revelation 
in the first chapter of this Gospel. The Deity of our Lord 
stands first, He is the Word, the eternal One. Then we 
heard that the Word was made flesh, His incarnation, that 
He is the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world, 
His sacrificial work, and now besides accomplishing redemp- 
tion, He is the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit. For this He 
received the Holy Spirit as man, so that he might be the giver 
of Him to others. And He gives the Holy Spirit to His own 
who have received Him and accepted Him as Saviour; such 
are baptized by His Spirit into the Body of Christ. 

It is of great interest to note the difference in the announce- 
ment of John the Baptist as reported in the Gospel of Mat- 
thew and in the Gospel of John. In the kingly Gospel, 
where John’s ministry as the herald of the King in proclaiming 
the nearness of the promised kingdom is more fully given, 


36 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


John makes the following announcement: He shall baptize 
you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, whose fan is in His 
hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His 
wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with 
unquenchable fire’ (Matthew iii). And here in the Gos- 
pel of John only one sentence is given, “He it is who bap- 
tizeth with the Holy Spirit.” It does not say here “Who 
baptizeth you with the Holy Spirit.”’ It seems clear that the 
words in the Gospel of Matthew must be considered as hav- 
ing some special relation to Israel. ‘The nation has in the Old 
Testament a promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 
(See Joel ii:28, etc.) The fire which John speaks of is not the 
gift of the Holy Spirit, but the fire Baptism means Judgment 
which is connected with His second coming. All this fits 
beautifully into the Gospel of Matthew, which is so promi- 
nently dispensational. Not a word of it is mentioned in the 
Gospel of John. Nor is it said here, “He shall baptize you,” 
but “He baptizeth with the Holy Spirit.” 

The statement of John “I knew Him not” has been called 
by some a contradiction on account of Matthew iii:14, 
“John said unto Him, I have need to be baptized of thee, and 
comest Thou to me?” Different ways of explaining this dif- 
ficulty have been suggested. John evidently did not know 
Him perfectly as to His Person, though he had a deep impres- 
sion as to His holiness when He came to be baptized by him. 
But when He had been baptized, and the sign was fulfilled 
by which John was to know Him as the Christ, and the giver 
of the Spirit, then he knew Him fully. Therefore he declares, 
“I have seen and borne witness that He is the Son of God.” 
And yet a short time later when John is in prison he sent two 
of his disciples to the Lord with the question, “‘Art Thou He 
that cometh or look we for another?” (Matthew xi:3). 
It shows that John the Baptist, though filled with the Spirit 
from his mother’s womb, was subject to like passions as we 
are (James v:17). 

Verses 35-39. And now comes another day. On the 
previous day John the Baptist had pointed out the Lord as 
“The Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” 
Such is the testimony of the Old Testament to Christ and His 
work in redemption. When John announced Him thus he 


THE GOSPEL: OF JOHN 37 


spoke as a witness of the Old Dispensation. But now comes 
another day on which John announced Him again, and unlike 
the previous day, there is now direct result from his testimony 
in the gathering of disciples to Christ. When we turn to 
verse 43 we find a second day mentioned; on that second day 
Nathanael is brought to the feet of the Lord. In the second 
chapter “‘the third day”? begins; on that day there was a 
marriage in Cana of Galilee. 

These three days have an interesting typical meaning 
which we mention before we follow the text. The day on 
which John heralds Christ with the words, “Behold the 
Lamb of God!” on which disciples follow Christ, dwell with 
Him in an unknown, a secret abode, is the type of the present 
age, after Israel rejected the message of the Lamb of God. 
In type we see what takes place during this age in the gather- 
ing of His own, which constitute the Church. 

When that is concluded the second day comes. Nathanael 
unbelieving, is a type of the Jew, more strictly speaking, 
of those Jews who are God-fearing, still waiting for Messiah. 
Nathanael gets a demonstration of the Deity of Him of whom 
he said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” 
Then he believes on Him as the Son of God, the King of 
Israel. That comes and takes place after the Church is 
completed. 

On the third day there was a marriage in Cana. The Lord 
Jesus was there, His mother, His disciples,and then He mani- 
fested His Glory. That third day stands typically for the 
coming age of glory, when the water will be turned into wine. 

On this day (verse 35) John stood and two of his disciples 
were with him. A short distance away the Lord Jesus was 
taking a walk, the Creator of all things moved about the 
fields. How lovely He must have been as in meekness and 
lowliness, in unspeakable loveliness, He walked along! John 
is enraptured by the sight, for he knew Him; and so he gives 
a second testimony. ‘“‘Behold the Lamb of God.” Behold 
Him, how lovely He is! Behold Him whom the Father has 
sent! Behold Him who will ere long be the Lamb of God 
in sacrifice! He bears witness to His Person and to His 
Work. He is the Son of God and the Sin-bearer. And 
this is the great message of the Gospel for this present age, 


38 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


the message concerning the Son of God and His work, the 
work of the Cross, where the Lamb of God died for the un- 
godly. It is the core-truth of Christianity; omit it and 
Christianity is reduced to a religious, ethical system of no 
more value or meaning than Confucianism. But the mes- 
sage of the Christ, the Son of God and the Lamb of God, 
carries with it power. There is a physical law of attraction 
in God’s creation, the law of attraction through the message 
of the Lamb of God works in the spiritual realm, because 
the Spirit of Life and power operates in and through it. 
Oh! the blindness that men claiming to be teachers of 
Christianity do not see this and substitute the Devil’s 
counterfeits in the place of the one message which has power, 
which attracts, which saves. 

We see it working on this first day, the beginning of the 
gathering of the disciples to Him who is the Center, who 1s all. 
These two disciples (Andrew and probably John, the author 
of this Gospel) heard the brief message. They heard the 
Word of God. Then as they heard, faith took hold of their 
hearts, for faith cometh by hearing, and having heard and 
believed they followed Jesus. And this is the way of 
salvation. 

A God-given Saviour, a God-given message, a God-given 
power through that message in touching the dead condition 
of the human soul: Hearing, Believing and then Fellowship 
with Him, the Lamb of God. That is how the first disciples 
were brought to Christ and that is the way the Church has 
been gathered ever since, and is still being gathered. And 
now He turns. He knew them, He knew their hearts; 
yea, from before the foundation of the world He knew these 
two and that just such a scene as this would take place and 
that they would form the beginning of His Church; and, 
beloved reader, He knew us also as He knew these two, 
that we too would hear, believe and follow Him. And so He 
turns and says unto them, “‘What seek ye?” ‘They address 
Him as Rabbi,* Teacher, accustomed to do so as the dis- 
ciples of John and by Jewish usage. Rabbi, where dwellest 





*The parenthetical statement giving the meaning of this Hebrew 
word shows that the Gospel was written for Gentiles more than for 
Jews. It is the same in other places of this Gospel, when ignorance 
of Hebrew or Aramaic is supposed. 


THE GOSPER OF TORN 29 


Thou? Where dost Thou abide? The word “Dwell’’ is 
the same as the word “Abide” used elsewhere in this Gospel. 
(vi:27; xv). They want to be with Him, to share His 
abiding place. Their wish is granted. He speaks the first 
great word recorded as coming from His lips in this Gospel, 
“Come and see.” 

Three little words, yet how inexhaustible they are! Come! 
That is the royal word of Grace. He used this word long 
before He ever appeared in the form of man. “Come now 
and let us reason together, saith the Lord (the same Lord 
who speaks here); though your sins be as scarlet, they shall 
be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they 
shall be as wool” (Isa. i:18). At the crossroads, when His 
people were beginning to reject the Kingdom offer and 
He pronounced His woe upon Chorazin, Bethsaida and Caper- 
naum, we hear Him say, “Come unto Me.” Zacchaeus in 
the sycamore tree, with a burdened, longing soul, hears it. 
“Make haste, come down.” And the “comes” in this 
Gospel! ‘Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast 
out” (vi:37); and again, ‘‘No man cometh unto the Father 
but by Me” (xiv:6). ‘‘He that cometh to Me shall never 
hunger, and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst.” 
“Come, for all things are now ready.’? And we also have 
heard this royal word of Grace. We came and we have seen; 
we have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Some day we 
shall see—we shall see Him as He is, not as the two disciples 
saw Him, in the garb of humiliation, but we shall see Him 
in His Glory and then abide in His abode, the Father’s house 
with its many mansions. 

All this is blessedly foreshadowed in this first event in the 
Gospel of John. They came, following Him, and abode with 
Him in the place unnamed and unknown to others. It 
typifies that place in Him which the believer has, the fellow- 
ship with Him, which belongs to all who trust in Him. And 
there they were for the night; they spent the night with Him. 
Perhaps the abode was outside in some shack, for He had not 
where to lay His head. But some one may say the night 
is not mentioned. It says they abode with Him that day, 
for it was about the tenth hour, about four in the afternoon; 
hence it must have been the entire night they spent in His 


40 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


fellowship. As another has said, “No night is mentioned, 
for where He is, it is day.”’ And so those gathering to Him, 
His true Church, abide in Him and with Him during the 
night, this present age, and when the morning breaks on 
that coming day His own shall come forth with Him and 
then share that abiding place of Glory with Him forever. 

Verses 40-42. How this company is to be gathered and 
built and increased is seen in this paragraph. This simple 
story is the pattern of soul-winning and leading others to 
Christ. Andrew was one of them who had followed the Lord 
and enjoyed His fellowship. How he must have thought 
that night of his own brother Simon and wished that he too 
might be in that fellowship. 

The first thing he did when morning came, he went and 
sought out his brother Simon and brought him the good news: 
“We have found the Messiah.” He took him by the hand 
and brought him to Jesus. To his own brother Andrew, 
Simon, surnamed Peter, owes the knowledge of becoming 
acquainted with the Lord Jesus. 

“The fact before us is most striking and instructive. Out 
of the three first members of the Christian Church, one at 
least was brought to Jesus by the private, quiet word of a 
relative. He seems to have heard no public preaching. He 
saw no mighty miracle wrought. He was not convinced by 
any powerful reasoning. He only heard his brother telling 
him that he had found a Saviour himself, and at once the work 
began in his soul. The simple testimony of a warm-hearted 
brother was the first link in the chain by which Peter was. 
drawn out of the world and joined to Christ. The first blow 
in that mighty work by which Peter was made a pillar of the 
Church was struck by Andrew’s words, ‘We have found the 
Christ.’ 

“Well would it be for the Church of Christ if all believers 
were more like Andrew! Well would it be for souls if all men 
and women who have been converted themselves, would 
speak to their friends and relatives on spiritual subjects, and 
tell them what they have found! How much good might be 
done! How many might be led to Jesus, who now live and 
die in unbelief! The work of testifying the Gospel of the 
grace of God ought not to be left to ministers alone. All who 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 41 


have received mercy ought to find a tongue, and to declare 
what God has done for their souls. All who have been de- 
livered from the power of the devil ought to ‘go home and 
tell their friends what great things God has done for them’ 
(Mark v:19). Thousands, humanly speaking, would listen 
to a word from a friend who will not listen to a sermon. 
Every believer ought to be a home missionary—a missionary 
to his family, children, servants, neighbors and friends. 
Surely, if we can find nothing to say to others about Jesus 
we may well doubt whether we are savingly acquainted a 
Him ourselves.’’* 

And Simon, true to his name (which means “hearing’’), 
heard at once. And when the Lord looked upon him He 
said, ‘“Thou art Simon the son of Jonas (‘‘the dove’’); thou 
shalt be called Cephas, which is, being interpreted, a stone” 
(Greek, Petros-Peter). But does this not clash with Mat- 
thew xvi where the Lord calls Simon Peter by his name at 
an entirely different occasion, that is, at Cesarea Philippi, 
after Simon’s great confession of Him as the Son of the living 
God? 

But let us notice, in answering this supposed discrepancy, 
that the Lord here at first meeting Simon speaks of the future. 
It is the language of prophecy, ““Thou shalt be called Cephas,”’ 
this will be your name some day. The knowledge of Simon the 
Lord here displays is that of omniscience. He knew who 
he was and told him here of what He intended to make of 
him. That name is then fully revealed in its meaning in 
Matthew xvi. He is, of course, not the Rock upon which 
the Church is built, that is Christ the risen Son of God, but 
Peter was a stone, one of the living stones of which the 
Church is composed (1 Peter 11:4). 

The word Cephas is Aramaic, Peter from Petros is Greek. 
It has been pointed out by church historians that three popes 
were so ignorant that they supposed that the word “‘Cephas’”’ 
in Greek means ‘‘Head,” mistaking it for the Greek 
“Cephale.” Upon this ignorance these popes build their 
wicked assertion that Peter is the head of the Church. Even 
the great Cardinal Bellarmine made the same blunder. 

Verses 43-51. A second day follows, and on that day the 
~ *Bishop Ryle. 


42 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Lord Himself called one to follow Him. He found Philip 
and said unto him, ‘‘Follow Me.” Philip and Nathanael who 
was first unbelieving, give us a most interesting dispensational 
picture. As we pointed out, the previous gathering of dis- 
ciples, upon the testimony “‘Behold the Lamb of God,” and 
their abode with the Lord, gives a prophetic picture of what 
takes place during the present age, the gathering of His 
Church. Philip and Nathanael typify the calling of the 
remnant of Israel, after the true Church is gathered and her 
testimony ended. 

Philip means “lover of horses.” We noticed once in New 
Mexico a Spanish church building named “San Filipe’— 
“St. Philip’s Church.” On the outside wall had been painted 
a race-horse with outstretched neck toward the goal. Who- 
ever caused that race-horse to be painted understood ee 
the meaning of the Greek word Philip. 

He represents that portion of the people Israel, who dur- 
ing the tribulation period will hear the call of the King and 
then with outstretched neck, like a race-horse, press on 
towards the goal, when the King comes back to deliver them. 
And through this believing remnant a testimony will be given 
to others, who are still unbelieving. This is represented by 
Philip finding Nathanael. Philip’s testimony is different 
from the testimony which John the Baptist bore. “We have 
found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets 
did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Philip 
voices the belief of the Jews of his times. They knew that 
God had given them through Moses and the prophets a 
revelation, and in that revelation He had promised to them 
a Saviour-King, the Messiah. The baptised infidels in the 
professing church, who call themselves “‘Modernists” deny 
both, the fact of revelation and the prophecies concerning 
a Messiah. 

The testimony which Philip gave to Nathanael has even 
been used by these rationalists as an evidence against the 
Virgin birth of our Lord. Did not Philip say that Jesus of 
Nazareth is the son of Joseph? The supposed inconsistency 
of this statement, and the account of Christ’s supernatural 
birth as given by Matthew and Luke, is purely imaginary. 
Philip was ignorant of the birth of Christ. Like others he 


THE GOSPEL“OF JOHN 43 


heard of Him as “the carpenter’s son” (see Matt. xiii:54-57). 

Nathanael (which means “‘the gift of God’’) was, like 
Philip, an expecting Jew, who did not deny the fact of 
prophecy, centering in the Messiah, the son of David, as the 
hope of God’s people. But he was shocked when Philip 
spoke to him of that promised One as of Nazareth. Had 
he said—Jesus, the Son of David, of Bethlehem, Judah, 
Nathanael would have spoken differently. It would have 
arrested his attention immediately. But when Philip men- 
tioned Nazareth, Nathanael said, ‘‘Can there any good thing 
come out of Nazareth?” In the Greek there is a scornful 
emphasis on the word Nazareth. Nazareth was an insignifi- 
cant village. Its inhabitants were called ‘‘Am-horatzin’— 
ignorant country people. They were of low origin and un- 
believing (Mark vi:5-6). They were rough and violent, so 
that they were ready to murder Him, who was brought up 
in their midst (Luke iv:28). No wonder Nathanael was 
greatly disturbed when his friend spoke to him of the Messiah 
coming from such a place. With the rest of his contem- 
poraries he looked for the Messiah as the conquering King, 
coming from David’s city to establish His kingdom; the 
story of His rejection, as revealed also by the prophets, he 
knew not. He is a type of that class of Jews during the very 
end of the present age, who are still ignorant of the identity 
of the coming King, and who stumble at His humiliation, 
but whose eyes will be opened, as Nathanael’s eyes were 
opened. 

Philip ignored Nathanael’s objection. He invites him to 
come and to see. Well has it been said, “‘Personal experience 
is the best test of the truth of Christianity.”? While all this 
was going on the Lord Jesus knew all about it. He knew 
Nathanael; He knew his sincerity, his faith in the Word and 
promises of the God of Abraham; He knew his character 
and the secrets of his heart. 

Nathanael was ready to do what Philip had asked. He 
was moving towards the Lord Jesus, who must have stood 
not far away. And as Nathanael neared to Jesus, He 
greeted him with the words “‘Behold an Israelite indeed, in 
whom is no guile.”” The omniscient Lord knew him as a 
true believer in whom the Holy Spirit had wrought His 


44 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


work (Rom. ii:28, 29; Gal. iii:29, vi:15, 16; Ps. xv, xxxii:1-3). 
Nathanael is amazed at such a greeting. It was the first 
time he had looked into the face of the Lord Jesus. Where 
did He have the knowledge as to his own person? ‘“‘Whence 
knowest Thou me?” ‘This question gives the Lord the 
opportunity to say something more startling than the 
previously uttered description of Nathanael’s state of soul. 
The Lord said, ‘‘Before that Philip called thee, when thou 
wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.” The Lord had first 
demonstrated to Nathanael His supernatural insight, and 
now He reveals His supernatural sight, His omniscience and 
His omnipresence, both of which show that He is God. 
What happened under that fig tree is a secret. Only the 
Lord and Nathanael know what it was, and the Holy Spirit 
has withheld the revelation of what took place. But we 
may surmise that Nathanael spent some time beneath that 
fig tree in deep soul exercise; perhaps he made an important 
decision relating to his spiritual life, on account of which the 
Lord had called him an Israelite indeed. Nor must we 
overlook the fact that what transpired was under the fig 
tree, which is one of the emblems of the people Israel. Per- 
haps in his musings, Nathanael, as a Messiah expecting 
Jew, had earnestly desired to know the Messiah. Many 
God-fearing Jews were convinced at that time that the 
promised King must soon appear in their midst. 

With such a manifestation of Deity which the Lord Jesus 
had given to Nathanael his prejudice falls to the ground and 
he bursts out in ecstasy, “‘Rabbi, ‘Thou art the Son of God; 
Thou art the King of Israel.’”? Perhaps the Spirit of God 
brought suddenly before the heart of this believing Israelite 
the second Psalm, in which the Sonship of the Messiah and 
His Kingship is announced. He therefore confessed his 
belief in Him as the promised Christ. The full meaning 
of what he was saying, he probably knew not. And the 
Lord Jesus Christ did not correct him, but accepted the 
worship of Nathanael. Renan and other unbelievers in the 
Deity of our Lord advanced the theory that the belief that 
Christ is God was the outgrowth of His followers’admiration 
towards the end of His ministry, and that it was then tacitly 
accepted by Christ. But here He accepts the titles of Son 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 45 


of God and King of Israel in the very beginning of His 
ministry. 

Like Nathanael, that portion of Israel which still holds 
to the promises of God as to the Messiah, will receive the 
demonstration, during the closing years of this present age, 
that the rejected and despised One, whom their fathers 
delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, the rejected Stone 
and stone of stumbling and offence, is the Son of God, the 
King of Israel. 

In answer to Nathanael’s confession, the Lord assured 
him that he would see greater things. “Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the 
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of 
Man.” ‘These words are generally spiritualized. It is 
pointed (out, “and nightly. so,’ that here '\is)a\reference./to 
Jacob’s vision, when he saw heaven open and the angels of 
God ascending and descending on a ladder. Then the 
application is made that Christ is the ladder for the sinner 
to ascend into heaven, thus the angels are used as types of 
sinners, and of spiritual blessings, which come to earth 
through Christ. ‘The meaning is a different one. ‘The words 
of the Lord are prophetic. 

In the first place the word “‘hereafter,” it is claimed, should 
be omitted. This is the opinion of such prominent scholars, 
whose knowledge of manuscripts is trustworthy, as Tischen- 
dorf and Alford. If we omit it, it reads ‘‘Ye shall see 
heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending 
upon the Son of Man.’ It could then be applied to both, 
the present and the future. But they did not see the angels 
of God ascending and descending during His life time. They 
were ministering to Him, but Nathanael did not behold this 
ministry at any time. 

The present therefore is excluded. It is the matter of 
the future. The words of our Lord will be literally fulfilled 
in the day of His visible, glorious return to the earth. Then 
heaven will be opened and He will be revealed from heaven 
in flaming fire and with His holy Angels, who will be His 
attendants in that great event. We refer the reader to the 
book by the author on ‘“The Angels of God,” in which this 
interesting truth is more fully developed. 


46 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


CHAPTER II. 


Verses 1-11. It was probably the third day after 
Nathanael had believed on the Lord as the Son of God 
and the King of Israel, when the marriage in Cana of 
Galilee took place. But there is another meaning to this 
third day, which we point out in our exposition. From 
Chapter xxi:2, we learn that Nathanael was of Cana, a 
small place not very far from Nazareth; possibly our Lord 
visited this place on the anvitation of the new disciple. 
Whose marriage it was which took place in Cana we do 
not know, for there is nothing said about it. Wicked Mor- 
monism teaches that it was the marriage ofour Lord! But 
the mother of Jesus was there and Jesus was called, and 
His disciples, to the marriage. By accepting the invitation 
to attend this marriage, a feast of joy and gladness, our 
Lord fully endorsed what He Himself as the Creator had 
instituted. For it was He who said, “It is not good that 
the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet 
for him” (Gen. ii:18). And the first Adam and his bride 
are types of the second Man and the Church, as Eve was 
of the body of the man and also his bride. And now the 
marriage relation on true Christian ground is a precious 
symbol of Christ and the Church (Ephesians v). How 
contradictory are the miserable inventions of Romanism on 
this point. ‘The Romish church on the one hand decries 
marriage, speaks of it as fleshly and imperfect, and then 
advocates celibacy. On the other hand Rome has made 
marriage a sacrament, because the Lord Jesus attended this 
wedding feast. That there should be such perversions as 
to the divinely instituted state of matrimony was foreseen 
by the Holy Spirit, for we read in 1 Timothy iv:3, “For- 
bidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, 
which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of 
them which believe and know the truth.” This prophecy 
has found its fulfillment in the Romish church. 

And when they wanted wine at the marriage, His mother, 
who seemed to have been at home in the place where the 
marriage took place, said to Him, ‘They have no wine.” 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 47 


Why did she say this and appeal thus to Him? Different 
answers have been given. Luther’s comment is as follows: 
“Mary thinks He is so good and gracious, that it needs no 
petition; I will only inform Him what is wanting, and He 
Himself will do more than we can ask.” Others like Bengel 
suggest that it was a hint from her that He and His. disciples 
might withdraw and not embarass the house. But that seems 
unreasonable. Mary knew who He was. She knew that He 
is the incarnate Son of God whom, as to His human body, 
she conceived by the Holy Spirit, and though He had not 
yet worked miracles and manifested His Power and His 
Glory, she believed that He could supply all the need at that 
feast. And He fully understood what was in her heart, 
what she meant, that she tried to induce Him to act. Would 
He then, the infallible Son of God, take his orders from 
His mother? He at once utters a word of reproof. “‘Woman, 
what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come!” 
Romanists have tried hard to explain away this word of 
correction but they have all failed in doing it. The rebuke 
shows her error, her mistake. He did not want her to inter- 
fere with His Work. Well saith Bishop Ryle, ‘She erred 
here, perhaps from an affectionate desire to bring honor to 
her Son, as she erred on other occasions. The words were 
meant to remind her that she must henceforth leave our 
Lord to choose His own times and modes of acting. The 
season of subjection to her and to Joseph was over. The 
season of His public ministry had at length begun. In 
carrying on that ministry, she must not presume to suggest 
to Him. The utter contrariety of this verse to the teaching 
of the Roman Catholic Church about the Virgin Mary is 
too palpable to be explained away. She was not without 
error and sin, as Roman writers have dared to assert, and 
was not meant to be prayed to and adored. If our Lord 
would not allow His mother even to suggest to Him the 
working of a miracle, we may well suppose that all Roman 
Catholic prayers to the Virgin Mary, and epecially prayers 
entreating her to “command her Son” are most offensive and 
blasphemous in His eyes.” 

And Mary accepted the reproof and spoke a word which 
shows her submission, ‘“‘Whatsoever He saith unto you, do 


48 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


it.’ She tried to command Him and now she urges the ser- 
vants to do whatsoever He saith. It might be called the 
“commandment of Mary” and be pointed out to Romanists, 
in helping them to see the true Gospel. 

Then He speaks. The six water-pots are filled at His 
command with water to the brim. He commands again 
to draw out and to bring it to the governor of the feast. 
He tasted what was offered unto him and found that the 
liquid which he tasted was not water, nor water and wine 
mixed, but pure and excellent wine. He then told the 
bridegroom that he has kept the good wine till the last, 
contrary to the usual custom of serving the best wine first 
and the worst wine last. 

It was a miracle. While in the previous chapter our 
Lord manifested His Divine Omniscience, here He re- 
veals Himself as the Omnipotent Creator. ‘The Creator’s 
power was needed to accomplish what was done in the 
twinkling of an eye. He needed no grapes, no mellow- 
ing process, nothing whatever. His power made the wine, 
and thus in the beginning of miracles He manifested forth 
His Glory. In the previous chapter we read that the Law 
was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus 
Christ. Moses’ first miracle was the turning of water into 
blood, typical of the ministration of the law unto death; 
and our Lord’s first miracle was turning water into wine, 
typical of the joy and the ministration of Grace. Wine 
is the symbol of joy and gladness; surely His Love is bet- 
ter than wine. It is the emblem of His own precious blood 
which He gave on the Cross, when He was poured out like 
water. And He keeps the good wine last. How different 
from the world! It gives that which man esteems good 
first, and then the bitterness and disappointment. His 
people have tribulation in the world, from which His grace 
saved them, but in it all the real joy and peace which 
comes in believing. And finally there comes a day, the 
day of His Coming, when we shall see Him as He is, and 
then we shall find out how true it is, “Thou hast kept the 
good wine until now!’ What joy and glory, then, when 
we shall drink anew with Him in His own presence! 

And what is the dispensational application of this first 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 49 


miracle? Let us remember that the marriage was on the 
third day. We believe this third day relates to the two 
days marked off in the first chapter of this Gospel. As 
we pointed out, on that first day the two disciples followed 
the Lord and dwelled with Him, a blessed type of the 
Church and what is going on throughout this age—the 
preaching of the message, Behold the Lamb of God, and 
the gathering of His Church around Himself, ‘Then the 
second day, on which Nathanael believed, the type of the 
Jewish remnant. The third day brings us to the consum- 
mation, when Israel is restored to her former relationship 
with the Lord, when they will be received back. It is the 
day of which Hosea so beautifully writes when he records 
Israel’s future confession, “‘After two days will He revive 
us, in the third day He will raise us up and we shall live 
in His sight” (Hosea vi:1-3). The mother of Jesus, who 
is at the feast, typifies Israel; the disciples who come with 
the Lord represent the church-saints, with whom He comes 
when Israel’s time of blessing and glory has come. The 
marriage here must not be identified with the marriage 
of the Lamb in Revelation xix. Some apply that marriage 
scene also to Israel, and make the Lamb’s wife the reinstated 
Israel. But the marriage in Revelation xix takes place 
in heaven and not on earth; it is the Church which, symbol- 
ically speaking, becomes the Lamb’s wife. The marriage 
of Israel takes place on earth and is an earthly scene of glory. 

And up to now His hour is not yet come. But all is 
waiting for that third day. When it comes, the sad, de- 
plorable history of Israel and mankind will be reversed. 
The best wine will then be given, and it will not fail when 
He is upon the Throne. And let us note it will be the begin- 
ning of miracles, the manifestation of His Glory. What 
glory will then follow! Yet the whole earth will be filled 
with His Glory. 

Verses 12-17. From Cana He went down to Capernaum, 
which was situated on the lake of Galilee. There our Lord 
seems to have spent much of His time and worked some of His 
great miracles. Yet Capernaum was unbelieving and rejected 
Him, as we learn from Matthew. ‘“Then He pronounced 
judgment upon the city” (Matt. xi:23), His mother and 


50 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


brethren accompanied Him, but He did not abide there 
many days. Here for the first time “His brethren’ are 
mentioned in the Gospel. We read of them in the seventh 
chapter that they did not believe on Him (vii:5). In the 
first chapter in the Book of Acts we receive the informa- 
tion that they were among the waiting company, so that 
they had believed on Him. There is no certainty about 
these brethren of our Lord. Some claim they were the 
sons of Joseph by a former marriage. The Apostle James 
is also called the Lord’s brother (Gal. 1:19) and yet he was 
the son of Alpheus or Cleophas, the husband of the Virgin 
Mary’s sister. In Mark vi:3 their names are given. 

The Passover being at hand He went up to Jerusalem. 
John does not call it the feast of Passover, or unleavened 
bread, as Matthew does, but John writes, “the Jews’ pass- 
over.” He uses this expression because this Gospel was 
written after the destruction of Jerusalem and the complete 
setting aside of the nation. Their feasts are now no longer 
“the feasts of Jehovah” but their own feasts and ordinances. 
The Apostle John exclusively mentions this particular Pass- 
over, when He entered the temple and cleansed the house. 
It must not be identified with the other cleansing of the 
temple recorded in Matthew xxi:12, 13; Mark xi:15; Luke 
xix:45. The cleansing of the temple which the synoptic 
Gospels give is the cleansing which took place during His 
last visit to Jerusalem; John reports the cleansing of the 
temple in connection with His first visit to Jerusalem in the 
beginning of His ministry. Here He made a scourge, but 
at the cleansing of the temple during His final visit to Jer- 
usalem no scourge is mentioned at all. 

The courtyard of the temple when our Lord entered was 
filled with those who sold oxen, sheep and doves to those 
who came to bring the appointed sacrifices, while others 
changed foreign coin. The whole scene shows the pro- 
fanation of the house of the Lord, the divinely appointed 
place of worship for God’s earthly people. It’ showed 
the state of heart in which the Jewish people were. Their 
holiest functions had become commercialized, the house 
of the Lord had been degraded to a house of merchan- 
dise. Such was the spiritual condition of Israel. It is 


THE GOSPELY OF. JOHN 51 


not better today in professing Christendom. We do not 
mean to say by this that a “church building” is the same 
as the house of the Lord. True worship is not in a house, 
with an altar and a priesthood such as Israel possessed. 
The words of our Lord to the woman of Samaria will open 
this more fully to our hearts. Ritualistic Christendom 
looks upon a building set apart for religious meetings as 
a holy place and patterns everything after the earthly 
house of worship which the Jews possessed. Protestantism 
has followed the same error in calling a place set apart 
for preaching of the Gospel, prayer and the ministry of 
the Word, the house of the Lord, as if He dwelt in a special 
manner in such a building. To speak of a “church building”’ 
as the courts of the Lord, His dwelling place, His house, a 
temple, etc., is the language of the Philistine, and should 
_ never be used by those who are called to worship in the Holiest 

where He has entered, made nigh by His own precious blood, 
and who are enabled to worship in Spirit and in Truth by 
the power of the indwelling Spirit. 

But it is equally true that in a place set apart for prayer 
and the ministry of the Word, the place where the holy 
things of our faith are ministered, a spirit of quietness, rev- 
erence and decency should be maintained. How the so- 
called ‘‘churches”’ with all their high sounding names have 
become houses of merchandise, places of amusements, the- 
atricals, moving picture shows, political conventions, differ- 
ent shows, including dancing for the young people, etc., we 
need not dwell upon at length. It is a worse profanation 
than the profanation of Israel’s house in the day our Lord 
stepped into its court. It shows that those who profess 
Christianity have made common cause with the world and 
know nothing of that separation which God demands of His 
redeemed people. The ministry of the Word, evangelistic 
campaigns led by evangelists who have “incorporated,” 
aiming at big collections to which Saints and Sinners, Jews 
and Gentiles, are urged to give, the different schemes to 
raise big sums of money, all these are greater evils than the 
selling of oxen and sheep in the temple court of Israel. It is 
unholy trafficking in the Truth of God. 

The scourge He made was probably used to drive out the 


52 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


animals. Nothing is said that He used the whip on the 
persons. His person was sufficient to strike terror into the 
hearts of these traffickers. How His eyes must have flashed 
with holy indignation! It has been pointed out that in this 
transaction He used more physical force than at any 
other time. ‘‘Here we see Him doing no less than four 
things: (1) Making the scourge. (2) Driving out the ani- 
mals. (3) Pouring out on the ground the changers’ money. 
(4) Overthrowing the tables.” 

Then came from His lips, the lips into which Grace was 
poured (Psalm xlv), the scathing rebuke ““Take these things 
hence! Make not my Father’s house a house of merchan- 
dise!” In comparing His words here with the words He 
spoke at the cleansing of the temple three years later, we 
notice that here He speaks of His Father’s house; three 
years later He said “‘My house.” ‘That He mentioned here 
the temple as ““My Father’s house” is another witness of 
our Lord to His Sonship. In Chapter v:18, He bears the 
same witness and then the Jews were ready to stone Him. 
But here His majestic, holy indignation strikes terror to 
their hearts and they flee His presence. And when three 
years later our Lord found the same conditions He said, 
“Ye have made it a den of thieves.” The profanation had 
increased at a fearful rate so that the house had become a 
den of thieves. 

And the incident has a striking dispensational, prophetic 
meaning. It foreshadows that cleansing which will take 
place when He comes again and manifests His Glory. The 
Jews in the future will erect another temple in Jerusalem 
where once more sacrifices will be brought, which are to 
the Lord an abomination, for they are the expression of 
their unbelief and apostasy (Isaiah Ixvi:1-4). This will 
be during the time of Jacob’s trouble, when the unbelieving 
part of the Jews are following and worshipping the Man 
of Sin. At that time the abomination will be set up in 
Jerusalem, that image of which we read in Revelation xiii. 
(See Daniel xii:11; Matthew xxiv:15). But when the 
Lord returns He will cleanse Jerusalem and purge it with 
the spirit of burning, that is judgment (Isaiah iv). Of this 
time of cleansing the Prophet Zechariah speaks. ‘In that 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN oe 


day shall there be . . . every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah 
holiness unto the Lord of hosts; and all they that sacrifice 
shall come and take of them, and seethe therein, and in 
that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house 
of the Lord of Hosts” (Zech. xiv:21). The word Canaan- 
ite means “‘traflicker.”? The house and the nation will be 
cleansed. But when He comes again His wrath will be 
manifested, foreshadowed in the small scourge He made 
of cords. It will be the wrath of the Lamb (Psalm ii:12; 
Rev. vi:16). And this wrath will be displayed not only 
against idolatrous Judaism but against apostate Christen- 
dom as well. The disciples remembered what is written in 
the Psalm, “‘the zeal of thine house has eaten me up.” It 
shows how well they were acquainted with the Word of 
God and the Spirit of God taught them the application of 
this Scripture. We find it in the sixty-ninth Psalm, the 
Psalm which is so frequently quoted in the New Testament 
Scriptures as a prophecy of our Lord in His humiliation 
and suffering. 

Verses 18-22. It is significant that there was no protest 
from the side of the Jews against the action of our Lord. 
They evidently recognized the wrong in having defiled the 
house of the Lord. But they questioned His authority. 
Had he credentials that He is authorized to do this? If He 
is really divinely commissioned let him prove it by signs! 
This was their demand. But instead of working a miracle, 
which He might have done, He spoke a word which was an 
enigma to them. “Destroy this temple, and in three days | 
will raise it up.”’ He did not mean the temple buildings, but 
the temple, His body, which He the Lord of all had taken 
on. In that body dwelt the Son of God, as in the bodies 
of God’s children the Holy Spirit dwells. This is the answer 
He gave. His body would be killed but He would raise 
this temple in three days. He spoke these words as the 
omnipotent Son of God who has the power to lay down 
His life and the power to take it again (John x:18). Not 
only did the Father raise Him from the dead, but He arose 
by His own power. 

The Jews did not understand what He meant. They 
thought only of the temple building, which Herod had re- 


54 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


built and repaired. According to the Jewish historian 
Josephus, at the time our Lord was in Jerusalem it was 
exactly forty-six years that this work had been going on. 
Nor did His disciples grasp the meaning of these words of 
our Lord. But when He was risen from the dead they re- 
membered it and then believed the Scripture through the 
illumination of the Holy Spirit, who showed unto them the 
things of Christ. The last three verses belong properly to the 
next chapter, with which a new section of this Gospel begins. 

Verses 23-25. These closing verses of the second chapter 
form an introduction to the great teachings which now 
follow, and which are so characteristic of the Gospel of John, 
namely, the unfolding of the truth concerning eternal life, 
how it is imparted to man, and what goes with it. Here we 
have first of all a picture of the condition of man and how he 
is in need of a new nature, and must be born again. He 
was in Jerusalem during Passover, and at that time He did 
miracles by which He manifested His Power and Glory. 
These miracles were the credentials of King Messiah. They 
were the signs of the Kingdom. As a result of these signs 
He wrought many believed on His name; they therefore 
conceded Him to be the Messiah, the Son of David, the 
promised King; the miracles were evidences to them of the 
true Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth. But while they be- 
lieved on His Name, not as Son of God, but as Messiah, He 
did not commit (or trust) Himself to them. Their faith 
was not such as affected their moral nature, not a faith 
which is expressed in complete submission to Him, or which 
opens the heart to receive Him. While they were fully 
convinced that He who did these miracles is the Messiah, 
their hearts were untouched. It was an intellectual belief 
which could assent to outward evidence, but which felt no 
need of a Saviour and would not own the real condition 
before God. It is an illustration of what the natural man 
is; how spiritually dead he is. The Lord Jesus looked 
through these men. Because He is God He knows the hearts 
of all the children of men (1 Kings viili:39). He is the 
searcher of hearts, who alone can sound the desperately 
wicked depths of the human soul. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 55 


CHAPTER Il 


Verses 1-3. We are now introduced to one of this class, 
who believed, because he had seen the miracles of the Lord, 
and yet he seemed to have a deeper desire than the others; 
this desire led Nicodemus to interview the Lord personally. 
He was a Pharisee, which was an honored sect among the 
Jews, known for their extreme religiousness in keeping the 
law, as well as the traditions of the elders, the interpretations 
of that law. How the Pharisees as the religious-ritualistic 
class hated and opposed the Lord Jesus, and how they finally 
made common cause with the Saduccees, the rationalistic 
school, in rejecting Christ, the synoptic Gospels fully reveal. 
But here is a Pharisee whose heart is touched. And he was 
a ruler among the Jews, he held a high ecclesiastical position 
in his nation, a position which demanded a clean, moral 
character. We find a third description of this man in verse 
10. The Lord addressed him as “‘the teacher in Israel.’’ He 
had the reputation in his generation of being a leading, 
deeply educated teacher, to whom the people looked for 
instruction and guidance. That such a prominent teacher 
lived in the days of our Lord is confirmed by the Jews. He 
was a leading member of the Sanhedrim and a man of much 
wealth. In Talmudical literature he is mentioned as Nico- 
demus Ben Gorion, an outstanding figure in Jewish economy 
of the first Century.* 

He sought the Lord Jesus by night. Twice more this fact 
is emphasized in this Gospel (chapters vii:50, xix:39). While 
he had an earnest longing for the truth, which made him 
take a great risk, he was at the same time timid, fearing the 
scorn and condemnation of his co-religionists. 

Before he ever made his appearance before the Lord Jesus 
in that memorable night, the Lord knew him. He knew what 
burdened his heart; he knew the longing of his heart. The 
conversation which follows is of great importance and de- 
serves very careful study. Some have asked why only John 
records this important event. The reason is very clear. He 
was commissioned to write the Gospel document which shows 
~ *See Jewish Encyclopedia Vol. IX, page 300. 


56 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


our Lord as the true God and the eternal Life, with power 
to give eternal Life, a truth which the Holy Spirit held back 
from the pen of the three preceding Evangelists. ‘The con- 
versation with Nicodemus, the great truths our Lord here 
teaches concerning the new birth, form the proper starting 
point for the unfolding of the great theme of the fourth 
Gospel. Others have asked where John got the correct in- 
formation from to write an accurate account of the night 
visit of the great Pharisee, especially since some forty years 
had gone by since it took place. This question has been well 
answered by another. ‘How any one can waste time, as 
some famous commentators do, in speculating how the con- 
versation between Christ and Nicodemus was reported, is 
to my mind perfectly astonishing. ‘To hint, as one has done, 
that Jesus must have told John about the conversation after- 
wards, or that John must have been present, appears to me 
to strike a blow at the very root of inspiration. Both here 
and elsewhere, frequently, John describes things which he 
only knew by the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit’ 
(Bishop Ryle). 

Nicodemus addressed the Lord as “Rabbi’”—which means 
“Master” or Teacher, and then said, ““We know that thou 
art a teacher come from God (literally rendered, “‘From God 
thou hast come a teacher”) for no one can do these miracles 
that thou doest, except God be with him.” Most likely 
Nicodemus had a strong impression that Jesus must be the 
Messiah, yet he was cautious and made therefore an attempt 
to know more about Him and by private conversation. 

And the Lord answered him at once without permitting 
Nicodemus to continue his address. What was in Nico- 
demus’s heart? About what did he intend to speak to the 
Lord? We read how the Lord answered him, and what our 
Lord said gives us a hint of what was in the heart of Nico- 
demus. The Lord anticipated his question, and at once 
touches upon the whole matter which had exercised his mind. 
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, 
he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”’ Nicodemus came to in- 
quire concerning the kingdom. Messiah and the kingdom 
were inseparably associated in the Jewish mind. If this Man 
does miracles, as He did, is He the Messiah, and, if He is, 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 57 


what about His kingdom? This must have been the supreme 
thought with Nicodemus. The words our Lord spoke to him 
indicate this. 

The question then arises, What kingdom does our Lord 
mean when He addressed Nicodemus in this abrupt way? 
This we must ascertain first, and after that the meaning of 
being ‘‘born again,” as well as the mode of this new birth. 

The Gospel is often preached, and that rightly so, from 
the story of Nicodemus. In doing so emphasis is laid upon 
the great truth that there is only one way into the kingdom, 
and that is the new birth. But the Gospel preacher gener- 
ally identifies the kingdom of God with salvation, and speaks 
of it in the sense of being right with God, getting saved and 
receiving eternal life, which is all very true. But the original 
meaning in connection with Nicodemus is quite overlooked. 
Nicodemus certainly did not understand by the kingdom 
anything different from that kingdom which the Prophets 
of his people had predicted. It is the kingdom promised to 
Israel, the kingdom which is not now, which will come some 
day and into which Israel will enter. We fully agree with 
the comment of one of the most spiritual expositors, who 
knew how to divide the Word of Truth rightly, the late 
Frederick W. Grant. We quote his words: 

“The Kingdom of God was that which the prophets had 
announced, and for which all Israel waited. We must not 
think of it in the form it has now taken, the King being 
away, and its administration being in the hands of men. 
We must think of it as established by power at the Coming 
of the Lord, when of Israel alone a remnant will enter it 
whose character Isaiah explicitly declares (chapter iv:2-4). 
For ‘in that day shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful 
and glorious, and the fruit of the earth be excellent and 
comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall 
come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remain- 
eth in Jerusalem shall be called holy; even every one that 
is written among the living in Jerusalem; when the Lord 
shall have washed away the filth of the daughter of Zion, 
and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst 
thereof by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.” 


58 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Then follows the account of the glory of Jerusalem in mil- 
lennial days. 

“It is certain, therefore, that, when Israel enters the King- 
dom, every one will be born again that does so, and it should 
be clear that this is what a Jew like Nicodemus would ex- 
pect, and had a right to expect, if taught of the prophets. 
Of the Christian form of the Kingdom he could know nothing, 
and could be expected to know nothing; for it was not yet 
revealed. Nor could the Lord’s words even apply to the 
present time, in which, all the parables declare, a mingled 
condition of things, tares and wheat together, wise and fool- 
ish virgins” (Numerical Bible). 

Later in the conversation our Lord expressed surprise over 
the great teacher’s ignorance. “Art thou the teacher in 
Israel and dost thou not know these things?’ It is clearly 
revealed in the Old Testament prophetic Word that Israel’s 
blessing, restoration and entrance into the future earthly 
kingdom, which will be set up when King Messiah returns 
to earth, is intimately connected with the new birth of 
the remnant of the nation. ‘This is clearly stated in the 
great restoration chapter in the Book of Ezekiel. After 
the promise, “I will take you from among the nations, 
and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into 
your own land,” the Holy Spirit promises that for the nation 
which will be their new birth. ‘Then will I sprinkle clean 
water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthi- 
ness and from your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart 
also will I give you, and a new spirit will J put within you 
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and 
I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit 
within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye 
shall keep my judgments and do them” (Ezekiel xxxvi:4-28). 

While this is true of Israel in the future, that they can 
never enter in and possess the promised kingdom unless 
born again, it is equally true of the entrance into the King- 
dom of His Son, which is now (Colossians i:13). There is no 
other way, but the way of being born again. What man is in 
himself, what he makes of himself, as a religious, a moral nad 
educated man, such as Nicodemus was, can never bring the 
soul into the presence and fellowship of a holy God. This 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 59 


is the one unalterable condition for Jew and Gentile, “ye 
must be born again.” 

It has often been remarked with what abruptness our 
Lord treated Nicodemus, interrupting him as He did, and 
then laying down this great demand as the one great con- 
dition of the kingdom. And what a contrast with her of 
whom we read in the next chapter, the woman at the well! 
Both needed the new birth, though the one dressed in the 
garments of his own pharisaical righteousness (only filthy 
rags), and the other garbed in that of an abandoned woman. 
Yet He did not speak to the woman of the absolute necessity 
of the new birth in order to see the kingdom of God. In 
fact, our Lord did not make a similar statement and de- 
mand of any other person apart from Nicodemus. He se- 
lected this one man, the natural man at his best, to emphasize 
the one great need, the new birth. 

Verses 4-8. The question which Nicodemus asked of the 
Lord, after His emphatic statement concerning the new birth, 
reveals the ignorance of the natural man, though he may be, 
like Nicodemus, in the eyes of man a great teacher and relig- 
ious leader. He was just as ignorant as the Samaritan woman 
who did not know what the Lord meant by “‘living water.” 
In answer to Nicodemus our Lord enlightens him as to the 
new birth, that it is a birth of the water and the Spirit, and 
repeats once more the absolute necessity of such a birth 
for entrance into the Kingdom of God. 

We examine first the very weighty and important state- 
ment “that which is born of the flesh is flesh.”” It was no 
doubt spoken first of all in answer to the words of Nicode- 
mus: “‘Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb 
and be born?”’ Even if this were possible it would not open 
the way into the Kingdom of God, for flesh, the fallen 
nature of man, cannot produce anything but flesh. This is 
the great truth our Lord makes known in this terse state- 
ment. Man enters into the world by the natural generation 
with a nature of sin, a fallen, corrupt nature. The whole 
race is by nature unfit to be in the presence of God. Both 
Jews and Gentiles are under sin and on account of sin the 
whole world is guilty before God. Out of an unclean thing 
nothing clean can be brought forth (Job xiv:4). Well 


60 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


may we pause here and think of that other statement in the 
beginning of this Gospel, in which also the word flesh is 
used—“‘the Word was made flesh.” If the Son of God 
was born like any other human being is born (as blasphem- 
ers in different colleges and in pulpits of evangelical denom- 
inations boldly declare), then He too falls under this state- 
ment, that He was born of the flesh and therefore flesh, and 
hence it would have been impossible for Him to be the 
Saviour of men. The holy, perfectly holy, sinless character 
and life of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be explained in any 
other way than by His virgin birth. We mention this argu- 
ment here because the destructive critics, with their boast of 
scholarship, declare that John’s Gospel has nothing to 
say about the supernatural birth of Christ. But of Him it 
was never true “‘that which is born of the flesh is flesh,”’ but 
He was conceived and born by the Holy Spirit of God and 
therefore holy, without sin, and without the possibility of 
sinning. Of every other human being it is sadly true, born 
of the flesh and therefore flesh, sinful and alienated from 
God. 

And this nature of flesh, this corrupt nature, cannot be 
changed into something better, because it is not good at all 
and so evil that it can only bring forth evil. The root is 
corrupt and so must be the fruit. Of this nature the Spirit 
of God testifies that ‘‘they that are in the flesh cannot please 
God.” It is enmity against God, for it is not subject to 
the law of God, neither indeed can be (Romans viii:7-8). 
How important is this truth! Whenever it is denied it will 
affect the w hole Gospel and will lead to the shameful denial 
of the Truth of God. And because human nature is abso- 
lutely corrupt, with nothing good in it, not even the imagined 
“‘divine spark” or a faint trace of good, therefore its off- 
spring must be evil and nothing but evil, with no hope of 
self-improvement; an entirely new nature is needed in order 
to see the kingdom of God and enter therein. This new 
nature is the nature produced by the Spirit of God, and there- 
fore a spiritual nature, the divine nature, which only is fit 
and fitted to be in the presence of Him who bestows it. 

This birth is of water and the Spirit, ‘‘except a man 
be born of the water and the Spirit.”” We could fill many 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 61 


pages with the different views which have been expressed 
on this sentence. Its application to baptism is the most com- 
mon and held by many. But this view is totally wrong. The 
Lord did no more mean baptism in using the term water, 
than He meant the Lord’s supper when in the sixth chapter 
He speaks of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. If 
He meant baptism then it would follow very logically that 
only those who are baptized can enter the Kingdom, and 
that all those who are baptized must of necessity possess 
eternal life. Baptism is the figure of death. Romans vi; 
Colossians ii and I Peter iii:18 bear witness to this; as Paul 
writes in the sixth chapter of Romans, “‘Know ye not that 
so many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were bap- 
tized into His death?”? But our Lord here does not speak 
of death, nor of His death and the believer’s death in Him, 
but he speaks solely of the communication of life in the new 
birth. 

‘Christian Baptism was not instituted, nor did the facts 
exist which it symbolizes, till the Lord died and rose. How, 
then, could Nicodemus by any possibility anticipate them or 
understand what the Lord gives as the clearing up of this 
difficulty as to being born again? Yet the Lord reproached 
him as “‘the teacher in Israel”? with his slowness of intelli- 
gence. That is, he should have known these things, which 
he could not possibly know if the Lord alluded to a Chris- 
tian institution as yet undivulged” (W. Kelly). Bishop 
Ryle of the Church of England, which more or less holds 
the view that water means baptism, gives a number of ex- 
cellent reasons why this view is erroneous. We give his six 
reasons. (1) There is nothing in the words of the text 
which necessarily requires to be referred to baptism. (2) The 
assertion that ‘‘water’? must mean baptism is an asser- 
tion utterly destitute of Scripture proof. It is a mere gra- 
tuitous assumption and must fall to the ground. (3) If 
water means baptism it follows as a logical consequence 
that baptism is absolutely necessary to salvation, and that all 
who have died unbaptized since these words were spoken 
have been lost. (4) If we accept the theory that baptism 
is the means of regeneration, that all baptized persons are 
necessarily regenerated we are irrestibly involved in the 


62 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


most dangerous and pernicious consequences. (5) If it 
means baptism it is difficult to understand why our Lord 
rebuked Nicodemus for his ignorance. (6) If water means 
baptism, it is most extraordinary that there is so little about 
baptism in the Epistles of the New Testament. Paul 
thanked God that of the Corinthians he had baptized none 
but Crispus and Gaius. He would surely never have said 
this, if all whom he baptized were at once born again. Im- 
agine Paul saying, “‘I thank God I renegerated none of you.” 

Baptism as an ordinance cannot communicate life, nor is 
it essential to salvation. Water here is figurative of the 
Word of God as it is also in the thirteenth chapter, in con- 
nection with the feet washing of the disciples, and in Ephe- 
sians v:26: ““The washing of water by the Word.” ‘Then 
there are three passages which show conclusively that 
the Word of God is meant: 1 Corinthians iv:15, “‘for in 
Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel,” 
James i:18, “Of His own will begat He us with the Word 
of Truth,’ and 1 Peter 1:23. In the last named passage 
Peter writes: “‘Being born again, not of corruptible seed, 
but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and 
abideth forever.” ‘This Petrine statement is sufficient to 
silence the view that water baptism is an agent in the 
new birth. And this is so much more remarkable because 
Peter is the Apostle through whom ritualistic Christendom 
claims to have received its authority and doctrine. The 
Spirit of God uses the Word of God to bring about the 
new birth. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing cometh 
by the Word of God. The Word believed and accepted, the 
Holy Spirit accomplishes by His power the new birth, and 
the new nature, the eternal life is recerved. We may well 
call the Word of God the mother of all those who are be- 
votten again, while the Holy Spirit is the Father. For this 
reason Peter exhorts new-born babes, those just born again, 
to desire the sincere milk of the Word to grow thereby 
(1 Peter 11:2). This is the only meaning of the word water, 
the written, the living and abiding Word of God. 

This new birth by believing the Word of God, and through 
the Holy Spirit as the agent of life and power, is absolutely 
necessary for entrance into the Kingdom of God. It is this 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 63 


which delivers from the power of darkness and translates 
us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. And, as stated 
before, Israel cannot enter that coming Kingdom, the King- 
dom which will come with the coming of the King, except 
by the new birth. The remnant of Israel will be born again 
in that coming day, and a great national regeneration is in 
store for that nation (Ezekiel xxxvi). 

The Lord then said again, “Marvel not that I said unto 
thee, Ye must be born again.”’ He bids him to stop won- 
dering, and the repeated emphasis confirms the great 
importance of the new birth. No matter how this age 
may progress in educational and scientific matters (it can 
not progress in righteousness for it is an evil age) the de- 
mand of the Son of God can never be changed—“‘Ye must 
be born again.” Dean Alford adduces from this state- 
ment an argument of the supernatural birth of our Lord. 
“The Lord could not say of Himself what he said to Nico- 
demus. He said ‘Ye’ and not ‘We’ must be born again. 
Why? Because in the full sense in which the flesh is in- 
capacitated from entering the kingdom of God, He was 
Hoteporn of. the flesh... “.> . Pherefore Hevincludes not 
Himself in this necessity for the new birth.” 

Furthermore, our Lord said, ‘““The wind bloweth where it 
listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one 
that is born of the Spirit”? (verse 8). This applies to the 
mysterious and incomprehensible operations of the Spirit of 
God in the new birth. 

Verses 9-13. For the third time Nicodemus speaks; it is 
the last time he answered the Lord. He had first addressed 
the Lord expressing his faith in Him as a teacher come from 
God. When our Lord had told him of the new birth as the 
only way into the kingdom, Nicodemus answered foolishly, 
and now after he had heard from the lips of the Son of God 
all the great truths concerning man’s corrupt nature, the 
necessity of the new birth by water and the spirit, and 
about the agent in the new birth, the Holy Spirit, in His 
incomprehensible operations, he asks, How can these things 
be? What an evidence of the blinded condition as to spir- 
itual things this great teacher in Israel revealed! It is the 


64 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


blindness of the natural man which is the condition of all 
of us. After our eyes are opened we realize it as the blind 
man did whom the Lord healed—*‘one thing I know, that, 
whereas I was blind, now I see” (Chapter ix:25). 

Nicodemus revealed ignorance even in the elementary 
things he should have known as the teacher of Israel. “Art 
thou the teacher of Israel, and knowest not these things?” 
As such he should have known through the study of the 
Scriptures, at least in a general way, that Israel before 
entering and possessing the kingdom promised to them, 
must be an Israel not only circumcized in the flesh, but 
in the heart as well. The Lord had spoken to Nicodemus 
of these earthly things and not of heavenly things at all, 
not of this present dispensation and a Church witha heav- 
enly calling, but of that kingdom of blessing and glory, 
an earthly kingdom, promised to Israel. 

The Scriptures make it very plain that only the born- 
again remnant of Israel will enter the land and enjoy the 
millennial glories. “I will purge out from among you the 
rebels, and them that transgress against me. I will bring 
them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they 
shall not enter into the land of Israel, and ye shall know 
that I am the Lord” (Ezek. xx:38). ‘And it shall come 
to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein 
shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will 
refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold 
is tried; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them; 
I will say it is my people, and they shall say, the Lord is 
my God” (Zech. xiii:8-9). The ungodly, the apostate in 
Israel cannot enter the kingdom. In the Psalms and in 
the Prophets the necessity of a spiritual re-birth of Israel 
is often brought forth in connection with the coming king- 
dom. For instance in Psalm xv which begins with the 
questions—‘“‘Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? Who 
shall dwell in Thy holy hill?” ‘The answer is the demand 
of righteousness, the result of the new birth. Or in Psalm 
Ixxiil, God will be good to Israel, fulfill all his promises to 
them, “‘to such as are of a clean heart.” ‘The new cove- 
nant which is yet to be made with all Israel mentions the 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 65 


new-birth. “But this shall be the covenant that I will 
make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the 
Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write 
it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall 
be my people. . . . I will forgive their iniquities, and I 
will remember their sin no more” (Jerem. xxxi:33). But 
the clearest prophecy on this line is the one to which we 
referred before—(Ezekiel xxxvi:23-36). Long before that 
the Lord had announced through Moses the world-wide dis- 
persion of the nation, their return in repentance and their 
new birth. ‘And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy 
heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest 
live” (Deut. xxx:6). 

Of these earthly things, the earthly kingdom and the 
conditions to enter therein, the Lord had spoken, and 
Nicodemus did not know these simple things revealed 
in the Hebrew Scripture. Of ‘“‘the heavenly things” the 
Lord did not speak to Nicodemus, and these heavenly 
things concern the fullness of redemption, the believer’s 
identification with Himself, the gift of the Spirit, the Church 
as the body and fullness of Christ. From this we learn con- 
clusively two important facts. First, the Kingdom of God 
has an earthly and heavenly side; the earthly side is the 
kingdom promised to Israel (called in Matthew “the King- 
dom of heaven’’); the heavenly side is the Church with her 
heavenly calling and destiny. The second fact is that the 
Lord speaks of the earthly things of the kingdom, the 
heavenly things were made known after the Holy Spirit 
came to earth. 

In the next place He who spoke thus to Nicodemus re- 
veals Himself, who He is, not “fa great teacher,” but One 
who came down from heaven, and though in the form of 
man, is in heaven. The words He spoke to Nicodemus 
demand our careful attention. 

“No man hath ascended up to heaven.” Some have 
looked upon this statement as a contradiction and point to 
Enoch and Elijah, who went to heaven without dying. It 
just depends what one understands by ‘“‘heaven.” The 
heaven of which our Lord speaks is the third heaven, where 


66 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


the dwelling place of God is. Into this heaven no man 
ever has ascended (Acts ii:34). Nor have the Saints of 
God since the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven to take 
His place at the right hand of God, gone into that heaven. 
The day will come when the redeemed will be brought into 
that heaven. The Lord speaks of Himself. “He that de- 
scended is the same also who ascended far above all heavens, 
that He might fill all things” (Ephes. iv:10). We may well 
connect this statement of our Lord with Proverbs xxx:4— 
“‘Who hath ascended up into heaven or descended?) Who 
hath gathered the wind into his fists? Who hath bound the 
waters into a garment? Who hath established all the ends 
of the earth? What is His Name, and what His Son’s Name, 
if thou canst tell?’ But why does He speak here first of 
ascending into heaven, and afterward mentions His descent? 
He speaks prophetically, that is in anticipation, as elsewhere 
in this Gospel, especially in His prayer in the seventeenth 
chapter. There He said, “I am no longer in the world,” yet 
He was still in the world. So here He anticipates His ascen- 
sion. And He descended, came down from heaven first. It 
is another precious evidence of His pre-existence and Deity. 
Equally so are the words, “‘the Son of Man who is in heaven.” 

This is a sublime statement with which Unitarians and 
others have meddled. That so-called Twentieth Century 
New Testament, which claims to be a translation from the 
Greek, when in reality it is nothing but a perverted para- 
phrase, against which we have repeatedly warned the people 
of God, translates and gives verse 13 as follows: “There is 
none gone up to heaven, except the one who came down 
from heaven—the Son of Man Himself.”” These men who 
are responsible for this Twentieth Century New ‘Testa- 
ment have taken an astonishing liberty with one of the 
greatest statements which came from the lips of our Lord 
—they have taken out the declaration of the Son of God 
that as Son of Man He is in Heaven, though He walked 
upon the earth. It shows what kind of a spirit is behind 
these attempts to modernize the Word of God. 

Others have tried to correct this statement by saying “‘the 
Son of Man who was in heaven.” While this is perfectly true, 
it does not say so in the text. ‘“The Son of Man who is in 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 67 


heaven”’ reveals His omnipresence, the omnipresence of God. 
While living on earth as Man, He was at the same time in 
heaven; as God He dwelt in heaven; as Man He dwelt on 
earth. Every moment between His coming down from 
heaven, and His going back, this statement was true of 
Himself. It shows us that He did not relinquish His Deity 
when He appeared in the form of a servant. This Gospel 
shows us His three great attributes of Deity, omnipotence, 
omniscience, and here omnipresence. 

‘The expression ‘who is in heaven’ is one of those many 
expressions in the New Testament which can be explained 
in no other way than by Christ’s Deity. It would be ut- 
terly absurd and untrue to say of any mere man, that 
at the very time he was speaking on earth he was in heaven. 
But it can be said of Christ with perfect truth and pro- 
priety. He never ceased to be very God, when He became 
incarnate. He was ‘with God and was God.’ As God He 
was in heaven while He spoke with Nicodemus. The ex- 
pression is one which no Unitarian can explain away. Ii 
Christ was only a holy man and nothing more, He could 
not have used these words. The explanation of the former 
part of this verse, viz.: that Christ was caught up into 
heaven after His baptism, and there instructed about the 
Gospel He was to teach, would be of itself absurd, and a 
mere theory invented to get over a difficulty. But the 
conclusion of the verse is a blow at the very root of the 
Socinian system. It is written not only that Christ ‘came 
down from heaven,’ but that ‘He is in heaven.’ ’’* 

Verses 14-17, In the previous verse the Lord had spoken 
of Himself as the Son of Man who is in heaven, and now He 
speaks of Himself as the Son of Man to be lifted up. Nico- 
demus must have remembered as the teacher in Israel that 
the Prophet Daniel spoke of the Messiah as the Son of Man. 
He saw Him in the night vision coming in the clouds of 
heaven to receive the kingdom (Dan. vii:14). Nicodemus, 
in common with the nation, expected the coming of the 
Messiah to set up His kingdom, and overlooked the fact 
that the same prophet who beheld Him coming to receive 
the kingdom, also records the rejection of the Messiah. 


*Bishop Ryle. 





68 THE GOSPEL: OF JOHN 


“Messiah shall be cut off and have nothing” (Dan. ix:26). 
Our Lord therefore points out to him that before the glory 
can come there must be suffering first. ‘The Son of Man, 
who will receive the throne of His Father David, and the 
promised kingdom, must first be lifted up. 

This is the second “‘must” in the third chapter of this 
Gospel. If man must be born again in order to see and 
enter the kingdom of God, the Son of Man must be lifted 
up so that man dead in trespasses and sin, destitute of eternal 
life, may receive such life and not perish. The words of 
our Lord give the answer to the question Nicodemus had 
asked, ‘“‘How can these things be?”—The Son of Man must 
be lifted up. 

What our Lord means by the sentence “the Son of Man 
must be lifted up” is His death by crucifixion. The twelfth 
chapter makes this plain. “And I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all to Me. This He said signifying what 
death He should die” (Verses 32-33). The incident in the 
wilderness, Moses lifting up the serpent, demonstrates the 
same fact. ‘This is recorded in Numbers (xxi:4-9). God 
had sent into the camp of Israel fiery serpents as a judg- 
ment. ‘The bite of these serpents was deadly. But when 
they cried “We have sinned’? God provided a remedy. 
He told Moses to make a serpent of brass and set it upon a 
pole, with the assuring promise that everyone who is bitten 
and looks upon the brazen serpent should live. And Moses 
made the serpent and put it upon the pole, and whenever an 
Israelite was bitten, and he looked, he lived. This serpent 
of brass was carefully preserved by the people Israel and 
finally became an object of idolatry (like the cross in the 
Romish “‘church’’) till King Hezekiah destroyed it (2 Kings 
xvil:4). In spite of this fact a Romish church in Milan, 
Italy,claims to have the original brazen serpent Moses made. 

The use of this incident to illustrate the wonderful truth 
of redemption, manifests the heavenly wisdom of our Lord. 
It also confirms the typical teaching of Old Testament events, 
that“‘all these things happened unto them for types, and they 
are written for our admonition” (1 Cor. x:11). 

The condition in the Camp of Israel is a picture of the 
ravages of sin, and the wages of sin, which is death. The 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 69 


fatal poison of sin is working in the race and man is spiritually 
dead. ‘The brazen serpent lifted up on a pole is the type of 
Christ in His sacrificial work on the cross. ‘That serpent was 
the very image of what was destroying the Israelites, but 
the brazen serpent had no poisonous fangs; there was no 
poison in it. Though it bore the likeness of the serpent, the 
emblem of sin, it was harmless. Thus the Son of God 
appeared in the form of man, in the likeness of sinful flesh 
(Rom. viii:3), but He was without sin; He knew no sin. 
And when He was lifted up on the cross, on that cross He 
who knew no sin was made sin for us, and by the offering of 
Himself for sin, He put away sin. Hanging on that cross 
He bore the curse and redeemed those who believe on Him 
from the curse, being made a curse for us, for it is written, 
Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree (Gal. iii:13). 
Looking up to the brazen serpent, the Israelite saw the very 
thing which had put death and ruin upon them, triumphed 
over, completely conquered. And so as we look to Christ 
crucified, made a curse, bearing sin, we see sin judged, con- 
demned, triumphed over, robbed of its power and stripped 
of its strength. 

And as the Israelites looked to the lifted up brazen 
serpent, and beheld there a representation of God’s power 
over that which wrought death, and beheld thus God’s 
ability to save, to end death and to give life, the power of 
God was blessedly manifested in their salvation—‘‘when he 
beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”,—Even so, when we 
turn our eyes to the cross of Calvary, we behold the power 
of God in salvation. The old man has been crucified with 
Christ, that the body of sin might be annulled, that hence- 
forth we may not serve sin. We see ourselves redeemed from 
the guilt and power of sin; death is ended and life is given, 
even eternal life. Let us also notice that the death-stricken 
Israelite was not saved by a natural process of improvement 
or by a gradual restoration, but by a sudden supernatural 
manifestation of divine power. That life by which they 
lived was miraculous in its character. How blessedly and 
fully all this foreshadows and illustrates the Gospel of our 
salvation! ‘The question Nicodemus asked as to the “Show” 
of the new birth is wonderfully answered. Christ died for the 


70 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


ungodly and believing on Him means salvation from eternal 
perdition and the gift of eternal life. What is it to believe? 
It is the same that the Israelites did when in simple faith 
they accepted God’s Word, believed it true and then looked 
to the brazen serpent on the pole. This is the way to 
salvation, as announced long before our Lord spoke these 
words of life to the teacher in Israel—“‘Look unto Me, and 
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isaiah xlv:22). 
There is life in a look at the crucified One; 
There is life at this moment for thee; 


Then look, sinner—look unto Him and be saved— 
Unto Him who was nailed to the tree. 


His anguish of soul on the cross hast thou seen? 
His cry of distress hast thou heard? 

Then why, if the terrors of wrath He endured, 
Should pardon to thee be deferred? 


We are healed by His stripes. Wouldst thou add to the word? 
And He is our righteousness made; 

The best robe of heaven He bids thee put on; 
O couldst thou be better arrayed? 


Then doubt not thy welcome, since God hath declared 
There remaineth no more to be done; 
Christ once in the end of the world hath appeared, 
And completed the work He begun. 


How needful it is in these days of apostasy to declare 
and to defend this one great truth concerning our salva- 
tion. In the very midst of the evangelical denomina- 
tions, which generations ago preached this salvation by 
grace, men have arisen who boldly say that man is not 
saved by one act of faith, who deny the great and eternal 
truths of real salvation as they came from the lips of 
our Lord. But it is worse than that. The modern the- 
ology sees nothing in the death of Christ but an act 
of self-sacrifice, the martyr’s death, and it denies Christ’s 
substitutionary sacrifice. There is a veritable sneer in 
apostate Christendom at the words “vicarious sacrifice.” 
And that masterpiece of Satan “Christian Science” does 
the same. It denies the reality of sin and death, and 
hence has only words of contempt for redemption by 
blood. Whoever it is who denies the substitutionary 
sacrifice of Christ as the only means of salvation, whether 
he is a professor or pulpiteer in some Protestant denomi- 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 71 


nation, a Christian Scientist, a Spiritualist, or whatever 
other name he may bear, is a deluded, lost soul, the 
instrument of the powers of darkness, a blind leader of 
the blind, a hypocrite, of whom the Son of God has 
spoken His just words of condemnation: ‘Ye serpents, 
ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damna- 
tion of hell??? (Matthew xxiii:33). If an apostate should 
read these lines, be warned, there is no escape for any 
man or woman who denies the atoning death of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

But who is able to give an exposition of John i1i:16? 
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only 
Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
not perish but have everlasting life.’ We do not say 
too much when we say, this is the most wonderful verse 
in the Bible. Luther said, “I love this text beyond meas- 
ure.” And so do we. Every Christian, who knows the 
Gospel, presses this. precious utterance to his heart, and 
prizes it more than the riches of the whole world. Dr. Martin 
Luther’s comment on this verse written four hundred years 
ago is still one of the best. We can do nothing better 
than to pass it on in translation to our readers, most of 
whom have no access to Luther’s works. 

“The Person of the Giver. In the first place, the Giver 
is not a man, an emperor, or an angel, but the high, 
eternal Majesty, God Himself, in comparison with whom 
all men are dust and ashes. He is no task-master, who 
only demands from us, nor is He now a devouring and 
consuming fire, but a rich, flowing, eternal fountain of 
grace and gifts. 

“Secondly, the cause. What was the cause and motive 
of the giving? Nothing but pure, unspeakable love; for 
He does not give from obligation or duty, but from His 
own goodness, as such a Lord who likes to give, and 
takes His pleasure and joy in giving; He gives purely 
and freely, without the asking. 

“Thirdly, the gift itself. What, then, does He give? 
Not heaven and earth and all they contain, but His Son, 
who is as great as God Himself. This is an eternal, an 
incomprehensible gift, which is a well and fountain. of 


3 


72 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


all grace, goodness and kindness; yet, the possession and 
ownership of eternal goods and treasures. When God 
gives His Son, what does He retain and what does He not 
give? Yea, He gives Himself entirely. (Rom. viii:32.) 

‘Fourthly, how and in what manner is the Son given? 
Look upon Him and see what He does and suffers, in that 
He must take upon Himself the fury and rage of the devil 
and sin and contend with them; this means to “give” 
in the highest sense. 

‘Fifthly, the recipient to whom all this is given is also 
painted in the text. In one word it is called “World.” 
This 1s wonderful, extraordinary loving and giving. For 
what is the world, but a great mass of people who do 
not fear, trust or love God; in addition, also, the dis- 
obedient, murderers, whoremongers, thieves and knaves, 
transgressors of all the commandments, and opposers of 
them in all respects, clinging to the very devil, the arch 
enemy of God. 

“Sixthly. Now follow the fruit and the benefit of this 
gift, “Should not perish but have everlasting life.’ That 
is, | shall not remain in sin, I shall not have a bad con- 
science, nor be under the law. This grace shall effect 
this, that it shall extinguish hell for me, cast the devil 
under my feet, and in place of a frightened, despondent 
and deadened heart, I shall receive a joyful, living heart; 
in short, an eternal, imperishable life, instead of eternal 
destruction and death. 

‘‘Seventhly, the manner in which such treasure and gift 
is to be received, and the purse or casket into which it 
is to be laid is faith alone. Faith holds out her hands, 
opens the bag and receives abundant grace. Faith may 
be only a small, diminutive casket, but it contains such 
a noble, precious jewel, a pearl or an emerald such as 
the world does not contain.” 

But all these explanations are but the stammering lips 
of a child. Could Luther speak from the glory, he would 
own the insufficiency of these words. We believe that 
the world God loved, means the world just as Luther ex- 
plained it. The view of Electionists, that the world means 
only the elect, whom God loved and predestinated before 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 73 


the foundation of the world, while the rest is predestinated 
to damnation, is unsound. The term ‘‘world” means the 
whole race of mankind. ‘“To confine God’s love to the 
elect, is taking a harsh and narrow view of God’s character 
and fairly lays open Christianity to the modern charges 
brought against it as cruel and unjust to the ungodly. If 
God takes no thought for any but His elect, and cares for 
none besides, how shall He judge the world? I believe in the 
electing love of God the Father as strongly as any one. 
I regard the special love with which God loves the sheep 
whom He has given to Christ from all eternity, as a most 
blessed and comfortable truth, and one most cheering and 
profitable to believers. I only say, that it is not the truth 
of John iii:16.”—Bishop Ryle. 

Even John Calvin endorses the true meaning of the 
word ‘‘world.” He says on this text, ‘‘Christ brought 
life, because the heavenly Father loves the human race, 
and wishes that they should not perish. Christ employed 
the universal term ‘whosoever,’ both to invite indis- 
criminately all to partake of life, and to cut off every excuse 
from unbelievers. Such also is the import of the term 
‘world.’ ” 

And who is able to give even a full comment on the 
smallest word in this text, which is the word ‘‘so”? No 
tongue nor pen can tell out the full meaning of these two 
letters. And then the words “He gave.” How unsearch- 
able and inexhaustible they are! 

“The expression ‘he gave’ is a remarkable one. Christ 
is God the Father’s gift to a lost and sinful world. He 
was given generally to be the Saviour, the Redeemer, the 
Friend of sinners—to make an atonement sufficient for 
all—and to provide a redemption large enough for all. 
To effect this, the Father freely gave Him up to be de- 
spised, rejected, mocked, crucified, and counted guilty 
and accursed for our sakes. It is written that He was 
‘delivered for our offences,’ and that ‘God spared Him 
not, but delivered him up for us all’ (Rom. iv:25; viii: 
32). Christ is the ‘gift of God,’ spoken of to the Samari- 
tan woman (John iv:10), and the ‘unspeakable gift’ spoken 
of by St. Paul (2 Cor. ix:15). He Himself says to the wicked 


74 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Jews, ‘My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven’ 
(John vi:32). This last text, be it noted, was one with which 
Erskine silenced the General Assembly in Scotland, when he 
was accused of offering Christ too freely to sinners. 

“It should be observed that our Lord calls Himself ‘the 
only begotten Son of God’ in this verse. In the verse but 
one before this, He called Himself ‘the Son of man.’ Both 
the names were used in order to impress upon the mind 
of Nicodemus the two natures of Messiah. He was not 
only the Son of man but the Son of God. But it is striking 
to remark that precisely the same words are used in both 
places about faith in Christ. If we would be saved, we must 
believe in Him both as the Son of Man and the Son of God.”’* 

The greatest statement in this verse, which we cannot 
exhaust, is in the words, that he whosoever (it means you) 
believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting 
life. No human knows what it means to “perish,” that 
awful destiny which is ours by nature, an endless, conscious 
existence in the outer darkness, with the load of sin unlifted, 
perishing and no end to this perishing. Nor do we know 
the fullest meaning of what the Glory is for which God has 
saved us and to which He brings His own. Only when we 
shall know, as we are known, when no longer we look into 
a glass darkly shall we measure the heights and depths of 
John 11:16. 

Furthermore, the Lord told Nicodemus, that God did 
not send Him into the world that the world should be 
judged (the meaning of the word “‘condemned’’) by Him, 
“but that the world through Him might be saved.” Later 
our Lord spoke words to the same effect. “I came not 
to judge the world, but to save the world” (John xii:47). 
The Old Testament prophetic Word shows Messiah as the 
Judge of the nations and of the ungodly, both among Israel 
and the Gentiles. His Coming means judgment and for 
the earth the rule of righteousness, when righteousness will 
reign through Him as King of kings. Nicodemus and the 
Jews who expect the promised Messiah and His kingdom, 
therefore expected Him to come as Judge. They overlooked 
the fact that His second Coming will bring the judgments 


*Notes on John 





THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 75 


announced in the Prophets and the establishment of the 
throne of righteousness. His first coming is not for the 
fulfillment of promises to establish His Kingdom. While 
the Jews were blind as to the purpose of His first Coming, 
the professing church of today is even more blind as to His 
Second Coming. The purpose of His first Coming is that all 
the world might have a door of salvation opened through 
Himself; that Salvation might be provided for all the 
world, and that those who believe on Him might be saved. 
But it does not mean, that all the world will be saved in 
this age. When those who believe are gathered out, when 
the Church, the Body of Christ, is complete, His Second 
Coming takes place, and then He will judge the world in 
righteousness. 

“The readiness of natural men everywhere to regard 
Christ as a Judge much more than as a Saviour, is a curious 
fact. The whole system of the Roman Catholic Church 
is full of the idea. People are taught to be afraid of Christ, 
and to flee to the Virgin Mary! Ignorant Protestants are 
not much better. They often regard Christ as a kind of 
Judge, whose demands they will have to satisfy at the last 
day, much more than as a present personal Saviour and 
Friend. Our Lord seems to foresee this error, and to correct 
it in the words of this text.” 

Verses 18-21. While it is true that the Son of God was 
not sent to condemn the world, yet in another sense the 
world is condemned already, for the world which lieth in the 
wicked one, yea the whole world is guilty before God and 
under condemnation. (Romans ili:19.) But the sinner who 
believes on the Son of God is no longer under that condem- 
nation. ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth 
my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlast- 
ing life, and shall not come into comdemnation; but is passed 
from death unto life.” (Chapter v:24.) But what a solemn 
truth it is that “he that believeth not is condemned already,” 
he remains in his guilty condition before God, with wrath 
abiding upon him (verse 36); he is judged because he does 
not believe on the Son of God. Unbelief then is the sin 
which damns. Well has it been said, ‘‘Nothing is so pro- 
voking and offensive to God as to refuse the glorious salvation 


76 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


He has provided at so mighty a cost, by the death of His 
only begotten Son. Nothing is so suicidal on the part of 
man as to turn away from the only remedy which can heal 
his soul. Other sins may be scarlet, filthy, and abominable. 
But not to believe on Christ is to bar the door in our own way, 
and to cut off ourselves from heaven. It has been truly 
remarked that it was a greater sin in Judas Iscariot not to 
believe on Christ for pardon, after he had betrayed Him, than 
to betray Him into the hands of His enemies. To betray 
Him no doubt was an act of enormous covetousness, wicked- 
ness and ingratitude. But not to seek Him afterwards by 
faith, was to disbelieve His love, mercy and power to save. 
Luther said on this passage, ““Henceforward, he who is con- 
demned must not complain of Adam, and his inborn sin. 
The seed of the woman, promised by God to bruise the 
head of the serpent, is now come and has atoned for sin, 
and taken away condemnation. But he must cry out against 
himself for not having accepted and believed in Christ. If I 
do not believe on Him, sin and condemnation must continue.” 
With this tremendous, never changing utterance of our Lord 
before us, let us think of the masses about us. Every man 
and woman, though they make some kind of a religious pro- 
fession, who does not believe on the Son of God, is condemned 
and lost. A Unitarian, a Christian Scientist, a Universalist 
and the vast majority of Ritualists and professing Protestant 
Church members, who have only the outward form of godli- 
ness and are destitute of real salvation, are all under the 
sentence of condemnation; they are lost. How well for us 
to remember that we owe to them the Gospel, and that we 
must witness to them concerning this solemn truth. 

And this is the condemnation that He, the Light, came 
into the world, and through His coming it has been mani- 
fested what the heart of man is. Because man has an evil 
heart and evil deeds, he loves darkness rather than light. 
It was so with the Jews; it is so still. The light of the Gospel 
is here; it has been shining for nineteen hundred years, yet 
man continues to love darkness and refuses the light. And 
has the rejection of the Gospel-light ever been greater than 
it is now! Rejecting the Light, the Gospel, the Cross, is 
the greatest tragedy of human existence for it seals an eternal 
doom. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 77 


“The words, ‘because their deeds were evil,’ are very 
instructive. ‘They teach us that where men have no love 
to Christ and His Gospel, and will not receive them, their lives 
and their works will prove at last to have been evil. Their 
habits of life may not be gross and immoral. They may be 
even comparatively decent and pure. But the last day will 
prove them to have been in reality ‘evil.’ 

“Pride of intellect, or selfishness, or love of man’s applause, 
or dislike to submission of will, or Self-righteousness, or 
some other false principle will be found to have run through 
all their conduct. In one way or another, when men refuse 
to come to Christ, their deeds will always prove to be ‘evil.’ 
Rejection of the Gospel will always be found to be connected 
with some moral obliquity. When Christ is refused we may 
be quite sure that there is something or other in life, or heart, 
which is not right. Ifa man does not love light his ‘deeds 
are evil.” Human eyes may not detect the flaw; but the 
eyes of an all-seeing God do. 

“The whole verse is a deeply humbling one. It shows 
the folly of all excuses for not receiving the Gospel, drawn 
from intellectual difficulties, from God’s predestination, from 
our own inability to change ourselves, or to see things with 
the eyes of others. All such excuses are scattered to the 
winds by this solemn verse. People do not come to Christ, 
and do continue unconverted, just because they do not wish 
and want to come to Christ. ‘They love something else 
better than the light. The elect of God prove themselves 
to be elect by ‘choosing’ the things which are according to 
God’s mind. The wicked prove themselves to be only fit 
for destruction, by ‘choosing, loving, and following’ the 
things which must lead to destruction.’* 

But he that doeth truth, who in sincerity believes, cometh 
to the light, and walks in that light, and thus it will be mani- 
fested that his deeds are wrought in God, the fruits of that 
new nature he received in believing on the Son of God. 

Verses 22-36. ‘‘After these things came Jesus and His 
disciples into the land of Judea; and there He tarried with 
them, and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Aenon 
near to Salim, because there was much water there; and 


*Bishop Ryle. 


78 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


they came and were baptized. For John was not yet cast 
into prison” (verses 22-24). The conversation with Nico- 
demus ended with the previous verse. We shall find Nico- 
demus mentioned twice more in this Gospel. After the 
conversation, perhaps the next morning, our Lord left 
Jerusalem and went into Judea, that is the surrounding 
country, where he tarried for some time with His disciples. 
There also the disciples baptized. The next chapter makes 
it clear that our Lord did not baptize Himself (iv:2) but 
His disciples baptized. We do not know anything else of 
this baptism, which must have been of the same character 
as John’s baptism unto repentance. And John also con- 
tinued in his ministry, baptizing in Aenon near Salim. He 
had not yet been cast into prison. 

“Then there arose a question between some of John’s 
disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto 
John, and said unto him, Rabbi, He that was with thee 
beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the 
same baptizeth, and all come to him” (Verses 25-26). 

What the question was between the disciples and the 
Jews is not fully stated. It probably concerned the question 
of baptism, which of the baptisms, that by John, or the 
disciples’ baptism, was the most valuable and purifying. {It 
is evident that the unrecorded dispute brought the disciples 
of John to their master in a spirit of jealousy; they were 
sectarians and were disturbed by the action of the disciples 
of the Lord in baptizing the people. But this brought out 
a most wonderful testimony to Christ from the side of John. 

John answered and said, ““A man can receive nothing, 
except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear 
me witness, that I said I am not the Christ, but that I am 
sent before Him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: 
but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and 
heareth him, rejoiceth greatly on account of the bridegroom’s 
voice; this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, 
but I must decrease” (Verses 27-30). 

Blessed statement! It bears witness to the great spirit- 
uality and humility of John the Baptist. How else could it 
be? For of him it is written, “He shall be filled with the 
Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke i:15). 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 79 


And whenever the Spirit fills, He produces humility, lowliness 
of mind and exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He rested 
in the will of God, perfectly content and assured that all is 
well. What then does it matter if more men came to Him, 
concerning whom he had borne witness, than to himself. 
He was fulfilling his mission as the herald of the King. 
Another one filled with the Holy Spirit manifested the same 
humility and contentment, Paul in the prison of Rome. He 
knew nothing of the spirit of jealousy, though some preached 
Christ out of contention, to add affliction to his bonds. But 
he rose above it all, when he wrote: “What then? Not- 
withstanding every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, 
Christ is preached, and I therefore do rejoice, yea, and will 
rejoice” (Phil’ 1:18). 

John then speaks of Christ as the Bridegroom. He that 
hath the Bride is the Bridegroom. But whois the Bride? Not 
Israel, who nationally held the position of the married wife 
(symbolically), being unfaithful, she was divorced, which is 
her present condition. A day is coming when Israel will be 
re-instituted and become once more married unto the Lord 
in earthly glory (see Isaiah Ixii:4 and Hosea 11:16). But a 
divorced wife taken back into favor can hardly be called a 
Bride. The Bride of which John the Baptist speaks is the 
Church, gathering now to the heavenly Bridegroom, destined 
to be the Lamb’s wife and to share with Him all His heavenly 
glory. John calls himself only the Bridegroom’s friend. As 
such he greatly rejoiced to hear the Bridegroom’s voice. 
Thus Christ was all his joy, to exalt Him the business of his 
ministry. Therefore he was content to decrease and see 
Christ increase. ‘“‘He must increase, but I must decrease.”’ 
This is the third “must” in this chapter. Even so it should 
be in the individual experience of every believer. Christ 
must ever increase and we decrease. 

“He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of 
the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that 
cometh from heaven is above all. And what He hath seen 
and heard, that He testifieth; and no man receiveth His 
testimony. He that hath received His testimony hath set 
to his seal that God is true. For He whom God hath sent 
speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by 


80 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


measure unto Him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath 
given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the 
Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the 
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him” 
(Verses 31-36). 

The Spirit-filled John exalts Christ and bears witness to 
His Deity. He is from above and therefore He is above all. 
Having come from above, He speaks of the heavenly things 
He has seen and which He knows. The words of Christ 
therefore are the unchangeable, the unchanging, the ever- 
abiding words of heavenly truth. He is the Truth and His 
Word is Truth. With Him whom he thus exalts he compares 
his own inferior ministry; he is of the earth and his con- 
ception earthly, weak and imperfect, as all earthly things are. 
The sentence, ‘‘no man receiveth His testimony” anticipates 
His rejection. But if any one believes the testimony of Him 
who is above and who has made known heavenly things, 
he hath set to it his seal that God is true. The seal is attached 
to a document to confirm and to attest it; even so he who 
receiveth the testimony of Christ, believes on Him, trusts in 
Him, declares thus his belief that God is true to His Word, 
and has kept His promises as to Christ and salvation. On 
the other hand “‘He that believeth not God hath made Him 
a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave 
of His Son” (1 John v:10). 

The Son of God, sent by God, One with God, speaketh the 
words of God. How could it be otherwise? And there is 
another great statement: “For God giveth not the Spirit by 
measure unto Him.” In Him the fullness of the Godhead 
was pleased to dwell. Prophets in the Old Testament re- 
ceived the Spirit by measure, not so He whois very God. He 
in whom the Father dwelt was also the dwelling place of the 
Holy Spirit. And those who are in Him receive the Holy 
Spirit not by measure, but He Himself comes as the abiding 
guest, so that believers are the temples of the Holy Spirit. 
Verse 35, ““The Father loveth the Son and hath given all 
things into His hand,” means that the Father, in anticipa- 
tion of the redemption work of His Son has given Him the 
pre-eminence in all things. All things belong to Him in 
His essential Deity; but as the incarnate Son of God who 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 81 


finished the work, He alone could finish, the work of the Cross, 
He has been made the heir of all things. 

The final testimony of John is a very solemn utterance. 
It is a fit termination of this great chapter. Eternal life is 
the possession of all who believe on the Son. This great 
truth we shall find more fully developed in the next chapters. 
Here John the Baptist states the way to life, to receive 
eternal life as a present possession (hath), which is faith in 
the Son of God. And he that believeth not the Son shall not 
see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. What an 
important statement this is! Many are today disbelieving 
the revelation of God’s word concerning the wrath of God 
and the eternal punishment of all those who do not accept 
the Lord Jesus Christ and who do not believe on Him. 
Some deny altogether that the sinner is by nature a child of 
wrath. Others say that the wicked man dies like the beast; 
they persuade themselves that somehow in some way, the 
wicked are annihilated and have no immortality, and that 
only those who believe on Christ possess immortality. Others 
have invented a second chance theory; others believe, or say 
they believe, in universal salvation, while others call it restitu- 
tion or restorationism. All these theorists deny that there 
is such a thing as the eternal, never ending wrath of God. 
All of them juggle with the Hebrew and Greek words trans- 
lated “forever” and “‘everlasting’’ as if these are terms of 
limitation. ‘The one sentence, the final testimony of this 
Spirit filled man of God answers all their delusions and 
hallucinations. ‘“‘He that believeth not the Son shall not 
see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Here we 
learn that man is by nature a child of wrath (Eph. 11:3), for 
the wrath of God in order to abide upon the natural man, 
who does not believe in the Son, must be upon him already. 
In the second place annihilationists are proven to be liars, 
for if sinners are annihilated the wrath of God cannot abide 
upon them. Russellites, California Restorationists, Univer- 
salists and all others are completely answered by this 
solemn declaration “‘the wrath of God abideth on him.” It 
is IMPOSSIBLE to say that this statement means anything 
less than timelessness and endlessness. It is clear cut an 
permits no deceitful handling. And may we all realize a 


82 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


never before what an awful thing it is to reject the Son of 
God and to neglect so great salvation. And knowing this 
may we go forth and give a dying world the Gospel of His 
grace. 


CHAPTER IV. 


Verses 1-6. The Lord left Jerusalem and Judea and 
turned towards Galilee. On the way there He must needs 
go through Samaria. In His omniscience He knew her 
whom He had come to seek and save. In the Gospel of 
Matthew we read that He said to His disciples, when He 
sent them forth as His messengers, that they should not go 
to Samaria nor to the Gentiles, but only to the lost sheep of 
the house of Israel. (Chapter X.) The message which He 
gave then was the message for Israel—““The Kingdom of 
heaven is at hand,” that is the promised, literal kingdom. 
He sent them forth to herald that kingdom; they were the 
messengers of the King, the Son of David. It was a national 
affair. It took place before John the Baptist had been put 
into prison. But now John’s ministry is ended; he is in 
prison; he is not seen again in the Gospel, and is mentioned 
but twice more (Chapter v:33; x:40). The Lord with His 
disciples did not enter Samaria to announce the nearness of 
the kingdom, but He went there for the sake of the woman to 
whom He would reveal even greater things than He revealed 
to the teacher in Israel, Nicodemus. 

The reason for the Lord’s departure from Judea was His 
knowledge that the Pharisees were greatly stirred up by the 
fact that He was making more disciples, had a greater fol- 
lowing, than John. They must have recalled the testimony 
John had given concerning Him, they also knew what had oc- 
curred inthe temple. No doubt they were even then secretly 
plotting to end His ministry. The omniscient Lord knew it 
all. Therefore He left Judea, and spent two days in Samaria, 
before He reached Galilee, to manifest His gracious power 
again and to perform His second great sign. 

We must not pass over these events without pointing out 
their typical significance. When our Lord left Judea and 


THE. GOSPEL “OF ‘JOHN 33 


Jerusalem it foreshadows the setting aside of Jerusalem, 
which rejected Him. His going into Samaria for two days 
to bring the message of salvation to the outcasts, to reveal 
Himself in the fullness of grace, is typical of what would 
happen after Jerusalem rejected Him, the Gospel of grace 
preached to the Gentiles. Then comes the third day, when 
He reached Galilee, is received, heals the nobleman’s son, 
which foreshadows the restoration of Israel. (See and com- 
pare with Hosea vi:i-3.) 

He must needs go through Samaria, for it was the only 
direct way to reach Galilee. The Galileans, when going to 
Jerusalem to attend the feasts of the Lord, always had to 
journey through Samaria, but some of the strictest Jews 
when obliged to go to the northern part of the land made 
a detour and passed through Perea, so as not to become 
defiled by contact with the Samaritans. The Jews hated and 
despised the Samaritans, because they were a mongrel race 
with a religion partly Jewish, and partly heathen. (2 Kings 
xvii:24-41). 

But the Lord knew why He must needs go through 
Samaria. While in the preceding chapter Nicodemus sought 
Him, here He seeks the woman. 

He came to the city of Samaria called Sychar, which 
means “purchased.” It is unquestionably identical with 
Shechem, and is a very historical place. God first appeared 
unto the father of the nation at Shechem (Gen. xii:6). 
Jacob dwelt there (Genesis xxxiv:2). At that place Joseph’s 
brethren fed their flocks (Genesis xxxvii:12). It was one of 
the cities of refuge (Josh. xx:7-8) and Joshua delivered at 
this place his great message (Josh. xxxiv:1). At Shechem the 
bones of Joseph were buried as well as those of his fathers 
(Josh. xxiv:32; Acts vii:16). Shechem is also prominently 
connected with the revolt of the ten tribes (1 Kings xii:1, 25). 

There at Jacob’s well, on the stone rim of the well, we 
see Him sitting, being wearied with His journey. The dusty 
looking traveler, tired out and thirsty, is the Lord of Glory, 
in creature form. “Thus,” He’ sat on the- well. Said 
Chrysostom, “What meaneth thus? Not upon a.throne; 
not upon a cushion; but simply.and as He.was upon the 
ground.” It is a beautiful illustration and evidence of His 


84 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


humiliation and the reality of His human body He had taken 
on in incarnation. Well may we think of Him when we are 
weary, knowing that He can and He does sympathize with 
us in our weariness (Hebrews iv:15). And it was about the 
sixth hour. This was at noon, in the hottest, most sultry 
part of the day. And there He waited patiently for her to 
come, who knew Him not, but who was known by Him. It 
has been mentioned by Burgon that “‘Jacob and Moses each 
found his wife beside a well of water; and here is seen that a 
greater One than they, their divine Antitype, the Bridegroom 
taking to Himself His alien spouse at a well likewise.” 

Verses 7-10. And now sheappears with her waterpot and 
finds the stranger sitting there. It is customary to go to the 
well towards evening, but she came at noon, probably on 
account of her character, an outcast, ashamed to mingle with 
others. 

She also was weary and alone; she knew not what was 
before her, and that in a little while she would leave her 
waterpot, forget her weariness, and fly back to the village 
to bring glad tidings to other weary souls, after her own 
refreshment. ‘“‘Give me to drink,” were the words the 
stranger addressed to the woman. How simple the request; 
yet it was heavenly wisdom which made it. Another has 
pointed out the significance of it in the following words: 

“In this simple request of our Lord there are four things 
deserving notice. (a) It was a gracious act of spiritual 
agression on a sinner. He did not wait for the woman to 
speak to Him, but was the first to begin conversation. (b) It 
was an act of marvelous condescension. He by whom all 
things were made, the Creator of fountains, brooks, and 
rivers, is not ashamed to ask for a draught of water from the 
hand of one of his sinful creatures. (c) It was an act full 
of wisdom and prudence. He does not at once force religion 
on the attention of the woman, and rebuke her for her sins. 
He begins with a subject apparently indifferent, and yet one 
of which the woman’s mind was doubtless full. He asks her 
for water. (d) It was an act full of the nicest tact, and ex- 
hibiting perfect knowledge of the human mind. He asks a 
favor, and puts Himself under an obligation. No line of 
proceeding, it is well known to wise people, would be more 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 85 


likely to conciliate the woman’s feelings towards Him, and 
to make her willing to hear His teaching. Simple as the 
request was, it contains principles which deserve the closest 
attention of all who desire to do good to ignorant and thought- 
less sinners.” 

““Give me to drink.” But there was another thirst in His 
loving heart for the poor lost soul. He thirsted for her 
salvation. ‘But what a sight to God, and indeed, to faith, 
the Son of God when driven out by the jealous hatred and 
contempt of man, of His own people who received Him not, 
occupying Himself with an unhappy Samaritan who had 
exhausted her life in quest of happiness never thus found!” 
And the woman was greatly surprised that He, a Jew, should 
ask her, a Samaritan woman to give Him to drink. ‘There 
was great enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans. A 
Samaritan, on account of past history, was looked upon as 
an outcast, who had forfeited all rights of membership in the 
commonwealth of Israel. They despised them. One of the 
vilest utterances made against our blessed Lord is the one 
recorded in Chapter viii:48, when His enemies said to Him, 
“Say we not well, Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a demon.” 

How blessed is His answer. He does not enter with her 
in a discussion of the differences between the Jews and the 
Samaritans, nor does He explain why He had asked her to 
give Him to drink. He says something which at once 
aroused the curiosity of the woman and made her forget her 
surprise that a Jew should make such a request of her. “If 
thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto 
thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him 
and He would have given thee living water.’”’ He speaks of 
Himself, for He is God’s unspeakable gift. Yet in the first 
instance when He said, “‘If thou knewest the gift of God” 
He meant God’s condescending grace coming down to seek 
the lost sinner, ready to give all man needs. This marvelous 
grace, God willing to give, is expressed and demonstrated in 
His own person, the Son of God. If she had known, that it 
is Jehovah manifested in the flesh, the promised Messiah, 
she would turn to Him with a request to give her, and He 
would give her living water. But she was ignorant of these 
facts in her darkened, sinful heart. She knew nothing of 


86 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


God’s abundant grace, nor of Him who had come to reveal 
that grace. Such is still the blindness of the natural man, 
even though he may have confessed to be religious, as the 
Samaritans were religious. 

He told her that He could give ‘“‘living water.” What 
did our Lord mean by this term? In Jeremiah 11:13 we 
read that the Lord is called a fountain of living waters, 
and in Isaiah xliv:3 the water poured forth is identified 
with the Holy Spirit—‘‘I will pour water upon him that 
is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour 
my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine off- 
spring.” But we do not need to go outside of the Gospel 
of John for an explanation of this term. It is once more 
used by our Lord in the seventh chapter of this Gospel, 
and there we find a divinely given comment. “If any 
man thirst,’’?. said our Lord at the Feast of Tabernacles, 
“let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on 
Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow 
rivers of living water. But this He spake of the Spirit 
which they that believe on Him should receive, for the 
Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet 
glorified” (vii:38, 39). The “living water” is the gift of 
the Holy Spirit. We find this verified when we hear what 
else the Lord had to say to this woman about the living 
water. 

Verses 11-14. She speaks as Nicodemus spoke, knowing 
nothing of the great spiritual Truth the Lord had uttered. 
She reasoned about His words, the only thing the natural 
man can do and the natural man generally does. The well 
is deep, how is He going to draw the living water? Is this 
stranger a greater man than Jacob, or has he a better well? 

He makes it clear to her first of all that He is not speak- 
ing of the literal water, that she is mistaken in thinking 
He meant the water in the well before them. Whosoever 
drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Even so it is true 
not only of the physical water, but of all temporal, material 
things; they can never satisfy the human soul. He'who 
drinks of these and finds his enjoyment in earthly things 
will thirst again. But He has another water to give, living 
water. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 87 


He can give living water for the soul’s need, just as in 
creation He has supplied the physical water, free, without 
money and without price, to satisfy the creature’s need. 
And that living water, when received from Hin, satisfies. 
He who drinketh of it shall never thirst (or: in no way 
thirst for ever). And more than that; He promises that 
the water He gives shall be in him who receives it a well 
(or: spring) of water springing up unto eternal life. He 
speaks of the gift of the Spirit, whom all receive who believe 
on Him. To Nicodemus the Lord unfolded the necessity 
of the new birth, by the water and the Spirit, and now 
He speaks of what the believer, who knows the gift of God, 
receives. He gives the Holy Spirit to be in him as a spring 
of water springing up unto eternal life. The Holy Spirit is 
in the believer to satisfy his needs, for communion and for 
worship, and becomes thus a perpetual exhaustless source 
for joy and peace, so that if this spring flows unhindered, 
thirst after other things ceases. All this was spoken by our 
Lord in anticipation of His work on the Cross, His resurrec- 
tion and glorification as the risen Christ. The words of our 
Lord tell us that He who knows the gift of God, His free 
gift, eternal life in Him whom He has sent, receives from 
Christ the living water, the Holy Spirit, who indwells the 
believer, abiding with him forever and supplying all his needs, 
so that all soul thirst is satisfied.* 

Verses 15-18. The woman with her darkened mind still 
thinks of the literal water; she did not know, nor under- 
stand, what the Lord Jesus meant when He spoke of living 
water and of the indwelling fountain. Yet here is also 
the first evidence that her heart responded to His Words. 
He had said to her “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who 
it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst 
have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living 





*Shall thirst no more for ever. What an assurance this is! But 
how little oftentimes does it seem to justify itself in actual realization. 
Here comes in the sad reminder for us of how we with our unbelief 
limit the glorious largeness of the divine promises, and often seem 
bent upon making falsehood of eternal Truth. Christ speaks accord- 
ing to the fullness of the gift bestowed. As toourenjoyment of it, it is 
always conditional upon the way in which faith entertains it. We 
are not to expect that it will be realized without the activity of faith 
and the diligent use of what God has given us as means to its attain- 
ment.—Numerical Bible. 


88 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


water.” And now she said to the unknown stranger, “Give 
me this water.”” Though she did not know what she asked, 
yet it was a prayer. It expressed a want, though she knew 
not what it was; she realized she was in the presence of One 
who could give and she asked Him to give to her. It is the 
first, faint desire of her heart for something. “It would 
be as foolish to scrutinize the grammatical construction 
of an infant’s cry, as to analyze the precise motives of a 
soul’s breathings after God.” This fully applies to the case 
of the woman. 

Then the Lord abruptly changed his mode of speech; He 
drops the figurative language He employed, and no more 
mentions after this the living water. Up to this point He 
had spoken to her of the gift of God, of His Grace, of His 
power to give living water. But her conscience was un- 
reached; yet the conscience must be aroused, deeply exer- 
cised, before grace, and the gift of grace, can be understood 
and appreciated. The Lord therefore asked her to call her 
husband. He knew her whole sad history of sin; and laying 
bare the secrets of her life He aimed at her conscience to 
produce conviction of sin, and to show her His own omnis- 
cience. It has been well said “the first draught of living 
water which the Lord gave to the Samaritan woman was 
conviction of sin.”? Nor must we lose sight of the fact that 
while our Lord touched her sinful life by saying, “‘Go call 
thy husband” that He also added ‘‘and come hither.”” How 
His wonderful grace shines out in this request once more! 
If she is a sinner, living a vile, unclean life, He is the sinner’s 
friend ready to welcome her. ‘“‘And come hither” is His 
word of welcome to her; grace speaks once more. 

Her answer is brief. ‘“‘I have no husband.” We take it 
that it was a confession of her evil life, and not an attempt 
to deceive the Lord, as some have thought. A few words 
come from His lips and she is fully uncovered as to her sinful, 
wicked life. Yet, what words these are which the omniscient 
Lord addresses to her! He shows the full knowledge of her 
sin in a few words, yet these words are not harsh words of 
condemnation. ‘“Thou hast well said’”—He commended her 
honest confession and then He laid bare her past life, a life 
of adultery, and tells her of her present sin, that she lived 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 89 


with a man who is not her husband. He closed His terse 
answer by telling her again “thou has truly said.” He 
who is the light of the world has manifested her darkness, 
yet He did it in a loving, gracious manner, such as He, full 
of grace and truth, alone could do. 

Verses 19-24. ‘The woman is convicted of her sin. She 
acknowledges the truth of the words He has spoken, that 
they were words of divine power, and that He who had 
uttered them must be the mouthpiece of God. Her conscience 
is awakened because her sins were so fully exposed, and 
therefore she turns to Him for instruction and light, which 
was an evidence of her spiritual anxiety. Her first thought 
is to do something. Her mind thinks of worshipping God, 
which she probably in her sinful career had totally neglected. 

She was fully aroused and deeply anxious to know the 
truth; but how is she to know what is true worship and the 
true way to God? Asa Samaritan she remembered at once 
that their mode of worship differed from the Jewish worship. 
The Jews claimed that Jerusalem was the only place where 
men ought to worship. ‘Our fathers,’ she said, “‘worshipped 
in this mountain” pointing, no doubt, as she spoke, towards 
Mount Gerizim. According to Samaritan tradition Gerizim 
was the mountain where Abraham offered up Isaac. This 
tradition is not true; but Gerizim is the mountain where a 
rival temple had been built, which, according to Josephus, 
was destroyed by Hyrcanus in the year 129 B. C. To this 
day this mountain is called “‘the holy mountain.” 

The answer our Lord gave to this seeking soul is of great 
importance. He reveals great truths concerning true wor- 
ship, that is Christian worship, which in these words of our 
Lord is mentioned for the first time in the Bible. ‘“‘Woman, 
believe Me,” he said to her. It is the only time our Lord 
used this phrase “‘believe Me.” What He was about to 
reveal was something altogether new and it required faith 
to lay hold on it. The hour He speaks of is the present 
Christian age. During this dispensation worship of the 
Father will not be done upon a mountain nor in an earthly 
Temple, in Jerusalem. Not alone will the worship of the 
Samaritans cease, but the whole system of the God-ap- 
pointed Jewish worship, altars, sacrifices, offerings, priests, 


90 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


etc., would pass away. Ritualistic Christendom with its 
show-worship, apes after the ancient Jewish worship, is, in 
view of these words of our Lord an invention. “To bring 
into the Church holy places, sanctuaries, altars, priests, 
sacrifices, gorgeous vestments and the like, is to dig up that 
which has been buried long ago, and to turn to candles for 
light under the noon-day sun. ‘The favorite theory of the 
Irvingites that we ought as far as possible in our public 
worship, to copy the Jewish temple service and ceremonial, 
seems incapable of reconciliation with the words of our Lord.” 
(Bishop Ryle.) 

In all their worship, thesLord told her, the Samaritans 
did not know what they worshipped; it was different with 
the Jews, they knew what they worshipped ‘“‘for salvation 
is of the Jews.” The Samaritans had no authority for their 
worship, but the Jews had all authority. Salvation, or as it 
is in the Greek, “the salvation” is of the Jews. The Lord 
meant Himself. The Hebrew word for “salvation” is 
Jehoshua; the Greek “Jesus” is derived from the Hebrew 
word. Everything in the worship of the Jews in Jerusalem 
foreshadowed the Messiah and His salvation, and foremost 
of course, the great prophecies of the prophets revealed 
Him and His work. And when that work was finished on 
the Cross there would be as a result another worship; 
there would be true worshippers, who worship the Father in 
spirit and in truth. Then the Lord announced that “the 
Father seeketh such to worship Him.” Nowhere in the 
Old Testament do we read that God was worshipped as 
“Father”; the worship of God, of Jehovah, is everywhere 
mentioned, but the relationship of a believing sinner to God 
as Father, and as a son of God is unknown in the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures. The Son of God alone has made known 
this marvelous truth and it is made known through His 
finished work on the cross. 

In Judaism God dwelt in thick darkness, and the testi- 
mony rendered by the whole Levitical system (with its 
sacrifices, priests, veil, incense, etc.) was, that the way into 
the Holiest had not yet been made manifest. When Christ 
died the veil was rent from top to bottom, and eternal re- 
demption was found; the worshippers once purged from their 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 91 


sins have no more conscience of sins and can draw near. 
Such is Christianity, God having revealed Himself as the 
Father in the Son through the Spirit. To know Him, the 
only true God, and Him Whom He sent, His only Begotten, 
is life eternal. And the mighty work which was done on 
the cross hath dealt with all our evil, so that we are free to 
enjoy Himself. We know, therefore, Whom we Worship and 
not merely “‘what.”’ 

And this worship in spirit and truth, this heart worship 
of the Father, is only possible with true believers, who are 
in Christ and possess the Holy Spirit, who alone makes such 
worship possible, “For we are the circumcision, who wor- 
ship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and do 
not trust in the flesh” (Philippians i1i:3). This true wor- 
ship necessitates living in the truth and walking in the 
Spirit. 

“And such the Father seeketh to worship Him.” We do not 
find such a statement anywhere else in the Scriptures. No- 
where is it said that the Father seeketh; but here the Son of 
God makes known that the Father seeketh true worshippers, 
worshippers in spirit and in truth. And this seeking of the 
Father of true worshippers goes on throughout this present 
age through the Spirit of God. All who accept the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and are saved are thus sought by the Father 
as worshippers. It is true we are saved to serve; but a still 
higher truth is we are saved to worship. In fact only if we 
worship right, can we serve right. This true worship centers 
in the Lord Jesus Christ; true worshippers are not gathered 
to earthly names, institutions, denominations, sects or 
parties, but unto the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The 
day will come when “‘the hour” in which the Father seeketh 
such to worship Him will end; this dispensation in which the 
true Church is gathered will end, like previous dispensations 
ended. The true Church will be brought to glory, and is 
seen there, in the Book of Revelation, as a company of wor- 
shippers. (Revelation iv-v.) And after that another form 
of worship will be introduced on the earth for Israel and the 
Nations. This will center once more in Jerusalem, in a 
house to which all nations gather in the Kingdom. (See 
Vizekiel xl; ete.) | 


92 THE GOSPEDSOEFR JOEN 


“God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship 
Him in spirit and in truth.” The declaration our Lord made 
to the woman as to the nature of God is one of the profound- 
est ever made. It is impossible for the finite mind to define, 
to explain or understand fully this great utterance “God is 
a Spirit.” True worship must, therefore, be in correspond- 
ence with the nature of God; He can only accept spiritual 
worship. 

“The importance of this great principle, laid down in this 
and the preceding verse, can never be perverted. Any relig- 
ious teaching which tends to depreciate heart-worship, and 
to turn Christianity into“a mere formal service, or which 
tends to bring back Jewish shadows, ceremonies and services, 
and to introduce them into Christian worship, is in the face 
of these remarkable verses most unscriptural and deserving 
of reprobation.”* And this false worship we find today 
almost universally in connection with the counterfeit Gospel, 
against which the Holy Spirit so solemnly warns in the 
Epistle to the Galatians. 

Verses 25-27. And now this Samaritan woman thinks of 
Messiah, the promised Saviour-King. Her heart is ready, 
yea, made ready by the Lord, to receive the truth as to the 
Person before her. She had heard of ‘“‘living water’; her 
life of sin and shame had been uncovered, which she fully 
owned and did not deny; she had with an awakened con- 
science inquired about worship and was told of true heart 
worship, which she was unable to render. And now convict- 
ed and perplexed, she wishes for Him, the Messiah (of whom 
the Samaritans had knowledge and in whose coming they 
believed), who would reveal all things. She expressed thus 
her desire to know the promised One who, according to the 
faint conception she had, would supply her need and solve 
her difficulties. No sooner had she uttered this wish, than 
the Lord in His gracious condescension makes Himself known 
to her. 

It has been pointed out how the story of the Samaritan 
woman reveals the mercy, the wisdom, the patience and the 
power of our Lord. His condescending mercy that He 
should take up such a one and seek her; His wisdom in deal- 


*Notes on John. 





THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 93 


ing with this sinful soul; His patience in bearing with her 
ignorance and His power in drawing her to Himself. The 
returning disciples wondered that He talked with a woman. 
They marveled that He instructed a Samaritan woman. 
Yet they did not dare to ask Him a question about it, 
knowing as they did, the dignity and glory of their Lord and 
Master, that all He did was right and perfect. 

Verses 28-30. After the Lord had told the woman that 
He was the Messiah she forgot all about her errand, why she 
had come to the well; she left the waterpot empty and un- 
filled at the well. It was probably a large jar and of value 
to her; but her soul was so stirred that she paid no attention 
to the jar and rushed back in haste to the city as a messenger 
to others. She gives a glowing testimony of Him who had 
found her, both of His grace and of her own sinfulness. 
““Come and see a man, who told me all things that I ever 
did. Is not this the Christ?’ She becomes a witness for 
the Lord, and is anxious to make Him known to others, who 
needed Him. While the Lord had told her first “‘go and call 
thy husband” she now goes to the city to call the men of the 
city to come out and see Christ. They must have known 
her character; how great must have been their surprise when 
this abandoned woman, all aglow with fervor and emotion, 
brought such a message! Her “Come and see,” the blessed 
words of grace we found so prominent in the first chapter 
of this Gospel, used first by the Lord and by His disciples, 
found a great response, forthe men went out and came to 
Him.* 

Verses 31-38. ‘These words were spoken by our Lord to 
His disciples during the interval of the woman’s departure and 
the coming of the Samaritans. How little they knew with 
what their Lord and Master was occupied! They thought 
of only the body and its temporal wants, and were ignorant 
of what filled His holy soul. They were ignorant of the meat, 
the other food, He was eating. ‘Their ignorance is at once 
revealed when they speak to each other, “Hath any man 





*What foolish inventions the Roman Catholic Church has made may 
be learned from the commentary of Cornelius a Lapide. He says the 
woman’s name was Photine; she later suffered martyrdom, and that her 
head is kept as a relic in the Basilica of St. Late in Rome, and that it 
was actually shown to him! 


94 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


brought Him ought to eat?’ But the meat He meant was 
not that which satisfies the body, but that which refreshed 
His soul, namely, doing the will of His Father who sent Him, 
and to finish His work. That was His delight. And when 
He spoke of finishing His work, He must have looked on 
towards the goal, why He had come to earth—to die the 
death of the Cross. The will of His Father had been done 
in leading the Samaritan woman to Himself, so that ere long 
she would be a worshipper in spirit and in truth. And how 
His loving soul must have longed for the Samaritans to come! 

Then He quoted a familiar saying, well known at that 
time: “‘Four months, then cometh the harvest.” But He 
speaks of another field and*another harvest. Perhaps when 
He uttered these words, “lift up your eyes, and look on the 
fields, for they are white already to harvest,’ He pointed 
towards the Samaritan city and the stream of the inhabitants 
passing through the fields to seek His presence. These men 
coming to Him showed that the fields were ripe for the 
harvest. We should also remember that our Lord used 
the field as a type of the world in which the good seed is 
to be sown. (Matthew xiii.) Reaping and sowing, sowing 
and reaping, will continue in this field till the harvest, the 
great harvest comes, when He comes again. And He that 
goeth into that field and reapeth, receiveth wages and 
gathers fruit and results, not for this present life, but for 
eternal life. Then, in glory comes the time when the sower 
and the reaper will rejoice together. These statements of 
our Lord, as well as those which follow, must be looked upon 
by way of contrast with the work done in the Old Testament 
by the Prophets. ‘“‘I sent you to reap that whereon ye 
bestowed no labor; other men labored and ye entered into 
their labors.”” The “other men” are the laborers of the 
Old ‘Testament who prepared the ground and sowed the 
seed; the disciples with their testimony as to Christ and His 
finished work would reap the harvest. Nor must we forget 
Himself as the great sower and the great reaper, that the 
joy and the glory belongs to Him. Of Him it is true what 
is Written in the Psalms—‘“‘He that goeth forth and weepeth, 
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with 
rejoicing, bringing His sheaves with Him.” And when He 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 95 


comes, bringing His sheaves with Him, all His servants will 
receive the reward for the sowing and reaping. 

Verses 39-42. How wonderfulitis! ‘The simple testimony 
of the woman, her ‘“‘Come and see,” her witness to Christ in 
the few words she spoke, brought such glorious results, so 
that many Samaritans believed on Him. She had become a 
soul winner. Every Christian should be a soul winner. The 
more simple, earnest, direct and unassuming a testimony to 
the Lord Jesus Christ is, the more it will be owned by the 
Spirit of God. Every true believer may be used as this 
Samaritan woman was in leading others to Him. And when 
the Samaritans came, saw Him and heard His words, they 
entreated Him to tarry with them and He abode two days. 
They were not like the Gergesenes who asked Him to depart. 
Then many more believed on Him because of His own words; 
they had a higher evidence than the testimony of the woman. 
Hearing Him they knew that He is indeed the Saviour of 
the world. 

We must not leave this portion of the Gospel without 
showing its interesting dispensational meaning. When 
our Lord went to Samaria He had left behind Jerusalem, 
and that which is represented by it, Judaism. In Samaria, 
He is, so to speak, on Gentile ground. What we have 
learned, the truth our Lord unfolds to the Samaritan woman, 
is specifically Christian truth. The fullness of grace, as 
the result of the finished work of Christ on the Cross; the 
coming and the gift of the Holy Spirit, indwelling the be- 
liever; the true worship, the Father seeking such worshippers; 
the witness bearing of the woman; the many Samaritans 
who believed on Him as the Saviour; are all the characteristic 
blessings of this age, the blessings of the Gospel as preached 
among Gentiles. The two days our Lord tarried in Samaria 
have, therefore, also a typical meaning. They foreshadow 
the time when divine grace is being manifested to the Gen- 
tiles, while Jerusalem is set aside. The same period of time 
is indicated in the prophecy of Hosea. In chapter vi of that 
Prophet we find a prophetic description of the repentance of 
a part of the Jews in the future. They will say then: 
“Come, and let us return unto the Lord, for He hath torn, 
and He will heal us: He hath smitten and He will bind us up. 


96 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will 
raise us up, and we shall live in His sight’? (Hosea vi:1-2). 
The third day is the day of their coming restoration when 
Israel receives the kingdom, which the Lord as the promised 
Messiah-King first preached unto them and which they 
rejected. That third day, the day of the coming Kingdom 
will last 1,000 years; it is the millennium. The preceding 
two days during which Israel is dead, spiritually and nation- 
ally, cannot mean two literal days; they are prophetic days 
as God measures days—“‘One day is with the Lord as a 
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.’’* 

The two days here in this Gospel when our Lord tarried 
with the Samaritans have the same meaning typically, 
foreshadowing the period of time when His grace goes 
forth to the Gentiles, as it still does. The remainder of this 
chapter fully confirms this and we shall see how the recorded 
events show what is yet to take place in the future, when He 
returns and Israel is restored and blest. But before we do 
this we call attention to another fact. The Lord did not 
perform a single miracle among the Samaritans. Not a 
sick one was brought to be healed; the Samaritan woman 
and the other Samaritans believed without seeing a single 
sign, or manifestation of His divine power. It was different 
when the Lord sent His disciples to carry the Gospel of the 
Kingdom to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then 
He told them,“Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into 
any city of the Samaritans enter ye not.” . ... ‘Heal 
the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons”’ 
(Matthew x:7-8). And why did the Lord give power to 
His disciples to perform miracles? Because they were the 
heralds of the kingdom the King was offering to Israel, and 
that offer demanded the outward signs and miracles promised 
in connection with the kingdom. But when in Samaria the 
Lord did not perform a single miracle, in harmony with the 
characteristic of this age, the age of faith and not the age of 
sight. This ought to help those who have been misled by 
false teaching, who think that miracles, healings, certain 





*We do not want our readers to understand that we teach that this 
present age, therefore, must last the full two thousand years. The 
exact duration of this age, or the duration of the times of the Gentiles 
cannot be definitely ascertained. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 97 


gifts, like the gift of tongues, ought to be revived in connec- 
tion with the preaching of the Gospel of Grace and the Church. 

Verses 43-45. The two days over, the Lord came to 
Galilee, back to Cana, where He had turned the water into 
wine; He came back to His own country, that which was 
His land. So will He return some day to His own and as the 
Galileans received Him, even so He will find a welcome from 
the faithful remnant of His people. That Cana is mentioned 
again where He had made the water wine, the blessed type 
of the coming days of joy and glory, is to tell us that when the 
days of gracious Gentile visitation are over that which His 
first miracle foreshadows will be accomplished. 

Verses 46-54. The nobleman was a courtier, probably 
attached to Herod’s magnificent court. This nobleman 
is of course not the same person mentioned in Matthew viii:5, 
for there it is a servant who is healed, here it is ason. The 
miracle reported by John is nowhere else mentioned in the 
synoptic Gospels. This courtier had heard that Jesus had 
come, and then he appeared in His presence, beseeching Him 
to heal his son who was sick unto death. The words which 
our Lord first addressed to him, “Except ye see signs and 
wonders ye will not believe,” bring out the contrast between 
the simple faith of the Samaritans and the unbelief of the 
Galileans and the Jews, which demanded signs and wonders 
in order to believe. ‘The request of the nobleman is answered 
by the Lord; the son was healed by the Word of the Lord. 
He demonstrated His power, the power of God. The very 
hour the Son of God had spoken ““Thy son liveth” the deadly 
fever had left him. The healing Word, “Go thy way; thy 
son liveth,” was spoken at one o'clock p. m. Capernaum, 
where the healing took effect, was about twenty miles away. 
The late Professor Curtis rode from Cana to Capernaum 
easily in a little more than four hours. The nobleman 
might have been back and by his son’s side by five o’clock, 
yet we read that it was the next day before he went home. 
What kept that father, but a moment before Jesus spake 
the life-restoring Word so filled with fear and distress about 
his son, quietly at Cana all those hours? Nothing, clearly, 
but a new born faith in the power of His Word, and a new 
born love for Himself. Nothing less than this could have 
kept that father from the bedside of his son. 


98 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


The experience of millions confirms the truth of the inci- 
dent; for the Christian’s assurance rests on the Word of God 
and on that alone. We are saved by believing in Christ 
according to the Word of God, and we have quietness and 
assurance by believing what the Word says about the finished 
‘work of Christ. This second sign the Lord did typifies the 
healing and restoration of Israel, the third day, when He will 
raise them up and they shall live in His sight and declare 
His glory. 


CHAPTER V 


With this chapter begins a new section of this book. It 
is introduced by the phrase “‘After this,” or as it should be 
rendered, “After these things.” The Apostle John uses 
this expression frequently. It has also been translated by 
“Afterward” and “‘Hereafter.”’ Eight times this phrase is 
used\ in: jhis; Gospel.) (iis22s vila va) See 
xix: 38 and xxi: 1); in the Book of Revelation it is used ten 
times. 

Verses 1-4. Wedonot know what feast it was; certainly 
not Purim as some think, more probably Passover. But the 
feast is no longer ‘‘Jehovah’s feast,”’ but the ‘‘feast of the 
Jews”; simply an outward, religious observance, strictly 
kept as to the letter by a rebellious, unbelieving people, and 
therefore no longer owned by the Lord. And yet the Lord 
Jesus went up to Jerusalem. As “‘made under the Law” 
(Galatians iv:4), He graciously conformed to these institu- 
tions which He Himself had ordained. And if the feast was 
Passover, as we believe it was, it is of blessed significance 
that He went up to Jerusalem, beginning with the second 
Passover mentioned in this Gospel the more public teaching 
concerning eternal life, the life given through the sacrificial 
death of the true Passover Lamb. 

At the sheep-gate (Nehemiah 11:1) there was a pool, called 
Bethesda (House of Mercy), surrounded by five porches in 
which a large number of sick people rested. They all waited 
for the moment when the waters of the pool became agitated. 
It was the evidence that an angel had stirred the waters, and 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 99 


whosoever of the sick stepped in first was made whole. The 
troubling of the waters occurred only at certain seasons; we 
are not told how often. The genuineness of this verse has 
been doubted by many, among them such leading scholars 
as Tischendorf, Alford, Meyer, Tholuck and Olshausen. 
Others concede that the passage is genuine and should be 
maintained, but suggest that there was no real angel who 
troubled the water, that it was only the superstitious belief 
of the sick who had gathered there. So Dr. Bullinger in 
the “Companion Bible” introduces a parenthesis by which 
he attempts to clear up the difficulty—‘“‘For (it was said) 
that an angel went down. .” But there is no need 
to omit this passage nor to add words to explain it. Why 
should this incident be thought impossible? The ministry 
of angels was not an uncommon occurrence in the history 
of the Jews. We find the record of their ministries else- 
where in the Gospels and in the Book of Acts. Why then 
should this passage be rejected as unreliable? The objec- 
tion originates mostly in the minds of men who would like to 
eliminate, if possible, everything miraculous and _ super- 
natural manifestations from the Word of God. If minis- 
tries of angels are believed, and that these beings carry out 
God’s wishes and designs, then there is nothing strange at 
all in this record. We believe it as it reads. It is serious 
to meddle with any portion or statement of the Word of God. 
God sent this angel at certain times to produce the healing 
power of the water, to remind His people of His power as it 
had been in their behalf in the past, and that He was still 
the same Jehovah, who doeth wondrous things. But there 
is a deeper lesson than the historical fact. 

The sick, the impotent, the halt, the withered, scattered 
throughout the five porches, are typical of the moral condi- 
tion, the helplessness and ruin of the people to whom the 
Lord came, the people Israel. ‘Though they had the Law, 
the five books of Moses, in which they boasted, yet they were 
without strength. Laying about in those five porches at 
the pool could not heal them; grace alone could do that. 

Verses 5-9. Among the multitudes was a special case, an 
impotent man, who had been in that case for thirty-eight 
years. He is helpless. The remedy is in sight but for him 


100 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


it was unavailing, for he had no power and strength to get 
into the pool, and no one was there to have mercy on him 
to assist him. 

Here again we have a picture of Israel’s condition as under 
the Law, and in a broader sense, of man in his sinful, helpless 
condition. The thirty-eight years remind us of the years of 
Israel’s wandering in the wilderness after the Law had been 
given. But that Law could not help them, as it cannot help 
the sinner, for he is without strength, like the impotent man 
who saw the remedy but could not use it. Then the Lord 
Jesus Christ appeared on the scene to do that which the 
man could not do. He knew the poor, miserable sufferer. 
He knew his disease and how it originated, for later He told 
him “‘sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (Verse 
14). And what a comfort it is for God’s children that the 
Lord Jesus still knows every pain, every heartache, every 
suffering and every disease; yea more than that, we know 
He is still the same. 

How lovingly He then addressed the man, “‘Wilt thou be 
made whole?’ Was that his earnest will, his deep desire? 
Hast thou a wish to be made whole? It was addressed to 
him so that faith might be produced in the heart of the man. 
Desire and willingness to be healed is all Grace asks of the 
sinner, and with it acceptance of what is offered. The man 
answered: “‘Sir, | have no man when the water is troubled 
to put me into the pool.” He did not answer the question 
directly yet his reply shows his earnest desire. Perhaps all he 
expected of the Lord who had spoken to him, was the friendly 
assistance, when next the water was troubled, to help him at 
once to it. But the friend of sinners did not touch him, nor 
make him a promise. From His lips came the word of 
command, the word of omnipotent power, which now pro- 
duced the faith needed in the heart of the helpless sufferer. 
“Arise, take up thy bed and walk.” Grace had spoken 
and power is there also. The first word ‘‘Arise’” was for 
faith to obey, and as the man obeyed the quickening power 
of the Lord was manifested. ‘‘And immediately, the man 
was made whole, took up his bed and walked.” This is the 
third miracle reported in the Gospel of John. We have 
called attention before to the number three, as the number 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 101 


which signifies resurrection and restoration. This healed 
man, raised up, completely restored,is a type of Israel in 
that coming third day when they will be raised up and walk 
before Him (Hosea vi:1-2). 

The three miracles as given in this Gospel, the water 
turned into wine on the third day, the healing of the noble- 
man’s son, and the third miracle, the healing of the impotent 
man, are all prophetic pictures of what will be when the 
Lord returns. ‘The healing of the impotent man was a sign 
for the Jews that the King promised to them was in their 
midst. The first miracle done after Pentecost when once 
more the Kingdom was offered to the Jews, was the healing 
of another impotent man (Acts ii). The use of the Name 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, His power, had made him whole, 
so that he leaped and praised God. It was a miracle to 
show to the Jews that the same One who had healed the 
impotent man, who lay in the porch at the pool of Bethesda, 
the Christ whom they had delivered into the hands of 
the Gentiles, who was crucified and who died, is risen 
from the dead and is living. Among the signs of the King- 
dom promised to Israel is the sign of the lame man who 
shall leap as an hart (Isaiah xxxv:6). Both healings in 
the Gospel of John and in the Book of Acts were witnesses 
to the Jews that the Lord Jesus is the promised King with 
the powers of the Kingdom. . 

Verses 10-16. The healed man at once attracted atten- 
tion. But it was not, as one would suppose, on account of his 
miraculous healing, but because he had taken up his bed 
(a very light thing consisting perhaps only of a rough 
blanket). ‘That the miracle was witnessed by others who 
had known the man for many years is certain; yet the Jews, 
those in authority, did not take notice of it. The evidence 
of Sabbath-breaking was the chief concern of these extremely 
self-righteous religionists; and when they found out that it 
was the Lord Jesus who had healed the man and told him to 
take up his bed, they were ready to manifest their zeal by 
killing the Lord. The Sabbath was everything to them; 
the Lord of the Sabbath they did not want. It is true that 
bearing of burdens on the Sabbath is mentioned in Nehemiah 
xiii:19 and Jeremiah xvii:21. But the burdens in both 


102 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


passages mean merchandise, and the command could hardly 
be applied to a poor man, who had been miraculously healed 
and who took his belongings from the ground to carry them 
away. 

When the Jews asked the healed man, he told them 
that he but obeyed the one who had made him whole. If 
he had manifested such gracious power towards him, how 
could it be wrong to obey him and take up the bed and walk 
away? The maliciousness and heart-hardness of the Jews 
becomes evident when they tried to get more information as 
to the person who had healed him and told him to take up 
his bed. They did not care about the healing, the act of 
mercy and the miracle which had been performed, but they 
were eager to display their zeal for the Sabbath. The man 
did not know that it was ‘the Lord Jesus; not could he find 
out, for the Lord had suddenly disappeared, perhaps in a 
miraculous way (as the word indicates) the same as in Luke 
iv:30 and John x:39. But some time later the Lord Jesus 
found him in the temple. From the words which then our 
Lord spoke to the man whom He had healed we may gather 
that it was a special sin which had been responsible for his 
long affliction. That sin had brought its awful harvest for 
his body. Here again we see the divine omniscience of 
our Lord. The man had committed that sin before our 
Lord had appeared on earth in the form of man; but He 
knew, for He is God. But what is the worse thing which 
would happen unto him should he after this deliverance go 
on in deliberate sinning? Thirty-eight years of helplessness 
is an awful harvest from sin, but the worse thing is the loss 
of the soul and eternal punishment. ‘This our Lord solemnly 
means in speaking of the worse thing. 

The motive of the man when he told the Jews that it was 
Jesus who had healed him was not evil, but probably because 
as a good Jew he felt it was his duty. From that moment 
began the Jewish leaders to persecute the Lord Jesus and 
sought to kill Him. 

Verses 17-18. They had charged Him with breaking the 
Sabbath. He tells them, “My Father worketh hitherto, and 
I work.” Their understanding of the Sabbath was that of a 
blind and literal legalism; but the Son of God told them that 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 103 


neither God His Father, nor He as one with God, knew any 
cessation of labor. It is true God rested on the seventh day, 
but that rest was soon broken by man’s sin. He had rested 
in creation because it was good. But when sin entered in 
and produced the horrible results of suffering, misery and 
death, God could no longer rest. He began after the entrance 
of sin His work of redemption, manifesting His love and 
His grace. If He had been satisfied with the conditions 
which sin produced, and continued His rest, He would not 
be God. But while the Father and the Son (as well as the 
Holy Spirit) had worked in creation and then rested; the 
work of redemption began at once when sin and its ruin had 
come, and ever since it has been as the Lord told the Jews, 
“My Father worketh hitherto (literally: until now) and I 
work.” And this still is true. While God has found His 
rest in a sense in the blessed, finished work of His Son on 
the Cross, who came to work the works of Him who sent 
Him, the great Sabbath is not yet come and will not come 
till “God is all in all’? and there ‘‘shall be no more curse.” 
All this the Jews knew not; equally ignorant of these facts 
are professing Christians. 

But here is a greater truth of vast importance. By 
uttering this weighty sentence the Lord states His equality 
with God. If we analyze these few words we discover in 
them the same great facts which stand out so boldly in the 
beginning of this Gospel. He is God; He is one with God; 
He is in fellowship with God and shares His councils and His 
work. His hearers at once detected the one meaning of 
this statement. They saw that He claimed a Sonship 
which was nothing less than Oneness with God. The Jews 
understood Him in this way. Had He said “Our Father” 
perhaps no objection would have been raised; but when 
He said “My Father’ they concluded “that God was His 
own particular Father” in a sense as no other being could 
claim it. 

Dean Alford in his Greek New Testament remarks: 
“The Jews understood His words to mean nothing short of 
peculiar, personal Sonship, and thus equality of nature 
with God. And that this their understanding was the 
right one, the subsequent discourse testifies. All might 


104 | THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


in one sense, and the Jews did in a closer sense, call God 
their, or, our Father; but they at once said that the indi- 
vidual use of ‘My Father’ by the Lord Jesus had a totally 
distinct, and in their view a blasphemous, meaning; this 
latter especially, because He made God a participator in 
His Sabbath breaking. Thus we obtain from the adver- 
saries of the faith a most important statement of one of its 
highest and holiest doctrines.” 

Verses 19-23. In these marvelous words of self-witness 
our Lord tells now the Jews that they had not misunderstood 
Him, that He, the Son, is in full union, in complete identi- 
fication with the Father, that He does nothing without the 
Father, but all He seeth the Father do He does also. 
Deniers of the essential Deity of our Lord have tried to 
twist these words around to prove that He is not God, 
especially the statement that He can do nothing of Himself. 
Well said Bengel in his Gnomen: “‘This is a glory and not an 
imperfection.”” ‘The words do not mean limitation, but 
attest the complete, perfect unity which is between the Father 
and the Son. In His relation to the Father, the Son can do 
nothing independently, or separately, from the Father; 
if He would act independently He would be another God, 
which would be an impossibility. ‘He can do nothing of 
Himself”? therefore does not affect the question of power 
(He is omnipotent), but it is the question of His will; He 
will not act differently from the Father, from His own 
independent will. Of course the fact that He, the eternal 
One, became man also enters into this saying. He is in the 
place of dependence on earth, yet He does what the Father 
does, doing His work and carrying out His will. 

Much has been written on these great words of our Lord 
which is very helpful, and it may not be out of order to 
quote some of the sayings of the servants of Christ of past 
generations, as today we are surrounded by so many false 
witnesses, and the leaven of “Unitarianism” as well as “Rus- 
sellism” and other cults is working, denying the essential 
Deity of our Lord. Augustinus said tersely: “Our Lord 
does not say, whatsoever the Father doeth the Son does 
other things like them, but the very same things. If the 
Son doeth the same things, and in like manner, then let the 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 105 


Jew be silenced, the Christian believe, the heretic be con- 
vinced; the Son is equal with the Father.” 

Hilarius (401-449 A. D.) wrote: “Christ is the Son of 
God because He does nothing of Himself. He is God 
because whatsoever things the Father doeth, He doeth the 
same. ‘They are one because they are equal in honor. 
He is not the Father because He is sent.” 

Bishop Joseph Hall (1574) made the following paraphrase 
on verse 19: “I and the Father are one indivisible essence, 
and our acts are no less inseparable. The Son can do 
nothing without the will and act of the Father; and even as 
He is man, can do nothing but what He seeth, agreeable 
to the will and purpose of His heavenly Father.” 

Hundreds of similar words of comment could be quoted 
showing that the leading teachers of the Church agree in 
their interpretation. If another meaning is given to them 
it shows how darkened the mind of the natural man is. 

In verse 20 our Lord speaks of the Father loving the Son, 
showing Him all things He doeth and greater works than 
these, that they might marvel. It is all a matchless setting 
forth of His Oneness with the Father. Neither statement 
implies that the Father is superior and the Son inferior. 
Well has it been said: ““This love is not the love of an earthly 
parent to a beloved child. “The ‘showing’ is not the showing 
of a teacher to an ignorant scholar. The ‘love’ is meant 
to show us that unspeakable unity of heart and affection, 
which eternally existed and exists between the Father 
and the Son.’”* ‘The greater works are explained in the 
next verses, that is, the power to raise the dead and to 
quicken them, and His work as Judge. These words show 
still more His Divine authority and equality with the 
Father; yet they also have woven in them the fact of His 
work in incarnation, of redemption as Saviour and Lord. 
Only God can raise the dead and give them life, whether 
they are the physically dead or the spiritually dead; God has 
the power to do this. The same power belongs to the Son 
of God, not a derived power, by Divine commission, but 
sovereignty, “even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.” 


*Bishop Ryle. 


106 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


It is sovereign power. How He exercised and manifested 
this power the Gospel of John reveals also. 

Next our Lord speaks of judgment, and when He does He 
no longer speaks of the Father doing and He doing the same 
the Father does. He does not say ““The Father judgeth 
and I judge,” but ‘“The Father judgeth no man, but hath 
committed all judgment unto the Son.” Judgment, there- 
fore, is committed into His hands. It is one of His acquired 
glories, which belong to Him as the risen, glorified man. 
The occupant of the different judgment thrones is the Son 
of God, who died for sinners. All judgments are still in 
the future. The first to be executed will be the judg- 
ment seat (the award-seat) of Christ, before whom His 
own people will have to appear, not to be judged by thetr 
works, but that their works may be manifested (1 Corinthians 
v:10). Then follows the judgment of nations which will 
take place when He has taken His own throne in connec- 
tion with the earth, after His visible and glorious mani- 
festation. In the age which follows He will judge the earth 
in righteousness. “God hath appointed a day in the which 
He will judge the world in righteousness by that man 
whom He hath ordained; wherefore He hath given assur- 
ance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the 
dead” (Acts xvii:31). The day in this passage is “the 
Day of the Lord,” which will last a thousand years, during 
which He reigns over the earth and His redeemed people 
with Him. The final judgment throne He fills is “‘the 
great white throne”; then all the wicked dead will have 
to face, in that second resurrection, Him whom they rejected. 

But more than that, the Son is to be honored and therefore 
worshipped as the Father is honored, “that all men should 
honor the Son even as they honor the Father.’”’ Some have 
taught that God alone should be worshipped and not the 
Lord Jesus Christ. In the light of these words of our Lord 
this invention is completely answered. And all who do not 
honor the Son do not honor the Father, for He sent Him; 
rejection of God the Son means rejection of God the Father. 
This unity with the Father we have elsewhere expressed by 
our Lord. “He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and He that 
receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent me” (Matthew x:40). 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 107 


“He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me—but on 
Him that sent Me. And He that seeth Me seeth Him that 
sent Me” (John xii:44-45). How anyone in the presence of 
such words can deny the Deity of the Lord Jesus and His 
Oneness with God is difficult to understand. 

In this great self-witness, our Lord reveals Himself as very 
God, the Lord of life and death, and as the Judge of all. 
The words which He speaks next give the practical conse- 
quences of this, the manifestation of Himself as the Life- 
giver and the Judge in connection with man. 

Verses 24-27. Four times He uses the word “Verily” — 
Amen, Amen—emphasizing the solemnity and importance of 
what He now declares. These words show indeed how He 
will have to be honored by all men. Those who hear His 
Word and believe are quickened by Him; the spiritually dead 
who hear His voice shall live. Thus He is honored as the 
Life-giver. And those who reject the Son and do not honor 
Him by believing on Him, will be compelled to honor Him 
by undergoing judgment. 

And what a blessed, precious assurance it is the Lord gives 
in the twenty-fourth verse! It has been used countless times 
in the salvation of the souls of men, and in leading nominal 
and doubting professing believers out of the mists of un- 
certainty, into the sunshine of grace and perfect assurance. 
The Son of God gives the positive, unchangeable assurance, 
that sinners who are by nature destitute of “‘eternal life,” 
who are children of wrath, can have eternal life, and not 
come into judgment, and pass out of death into life. 

We have frequently asked professing Christians the 
question: “Do you know that you have eternal life?” 
Many times we received the answer—“I hope so”’— while 
others said: “It is presumption to be too sure about going to 
heaven’’—as if going to heaven would be decided at the time 
of physical death. But eternal life is not something bestowed 
when man dies physically, but it is a present gift and a present 
possession. ‘““The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus 
Christ our Lord.” That it is something in the believer, 
which he possesses as abiding in Him, we learn by way of 
contrast from 1 John iii:15, where we read of having “eternal 
life abiding in him.” It is the great, fundamental need of the 


108 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


human soul, to pass out of the state of spiritual death into life, 
to receive life, eternal life. This eternal life, which man does 
not possess because he is in the state of spiritual death, is 
received, fully assured and forever bestowed by hearing 
Christ’s Word and believing God (not on God) who sent Him. 
“He that heareth My Word and believeth Him that sent 
Me, hath eternal life.” God sent His Son into the world that 
He might give eternal life to sinners dead and lost. ‘There- 
fore believing Him means the gift of life, the impartation 
of the new nature, which is spiritual, eternal life. The Lord 
Jesus says nothing about works, nor about ordinances or 
anything else; hearing and believing is all needed for the 
present reception and abiding possession of eternal life. Thus 
every sinner who heareth His Word and believeth Him who 
sent Him hath, not shall have, but hath, eternal life. If any 
one questions this, it means nothing less than questioning the 
truthfulness of the Son of God. Acceptance of the “Verily” 
of the Lord means assurance and perfect peace. Further- 
more, in having this eternal life, judgment is forever gone 
(not condemnation)—‘“‘cometh not into judgment, but 7s 
passed out of death into life” (not shall pass). Sinners saved 
by grace, in possession of that life which is in Him, can never 
come into judgment; the judgment seat before which the 
believer has to appear does not decide whether he is saved 
or lost, but the believer’s works will there be manifested. 

The hour in verse 25 began with the declaration of these 
truths by our Lord and covers the entire dispensation, the 
day of grace. The dead are the spiritually dead. What a 
testimony the Son of God gives as to the condition of the 
whole race! What a rebuke to those teachers who deny the 
truth the infallible, omniscient Son of God states! Those 
who receive life are they who hear His voice, that is, who 
hear and believe. 

When next the Lord speaks of the Father having life in 
Himself and that He gave to the Son to have life in Himself, 
and that He hath given Him authority to judge, He speaks 
of Himself as the Son of Man, the sent One of God. As 
Son of Man He quickens, and as Son of Man He will judge. 
The day in which He quickens still goes on, but some day 
it will end. ‘Then comes another hour, of which He speaks 
jn the verses which follow. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 109 


Verses 28-29. Here then He speaks of His authority to 
raise the physically dead and to judge. That hour has not yet 
come, nor will it come as long as the gracious purpose of the 
present age remains unaccomplished. When this is reached, 
when the out-called company, the Church is gathered, then 
begins that future hour of which the Lord speaks. His voice 
will be heard to call forth those that are in the graves. But 
the Lord does not teach here a general resurrection, when the 
righteous and the unrighteous are raised up together. Such 
a general resurrection is nowhere mentioned in the Word of 
God. Matthew xxv:31-46 is mostly used to confirm the 
belief in such a resurrection; but this passage does not 
concern the dead at all, but it reveals a judgment of living 
nations. Our Lord teaches that there will be two resurrec- 
tions. ‘The first will be the resurrection of those who have 
practiced good and theirs will be a resurrection of life. 
This class are they who believed, and as a result practiced 
good, lived a righteous life. The second resurrection is 
the resurrection of judgment, and those concerned in it did 
not practice good, because they believed not and did not 
pass from death unto life, and hence they come into judg- 
ment; while those who believed have share in life and are 
exempt from judgment. ‘The details of these two resurrec— 
tions are not revealed here, nor the chronological order of 
events preceding and following the two resurrections. The 
Spirit of God unfolds this in the Epistles, and the last Book, 
the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, speaks more fully of 
these two resurrections. 

Every Christian who searches his Bible knows that the 
voice of the Son of God will be heard first when He descends 
from heaven with the shout (1 Thessalonians iv:13-18). 
That shout will open the graves of those who have died in 
Christ; their bodies which slept* will rise, and all believers, 
those who heard His voice and who believed Him that sent 
Him, who live in that most blessed day, when His voice 
breaks the silence of many centuries, will be changed in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Thus begins the first 
resurrection. ‘The risen Saints, with those who were changed, 
will be caught up together in clouds to meet Him in the air. 





*Sleep of the body, not the soul. 


110 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


On earth the tribulation rages after that; Satan and the beasts 
will have control. Then others die the martyr’s death. They 
are beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God. 
They worshipped not the beast, neither his image. And these 
tribulation Saints will also be raised up when the great tribu- 
lation is ended (Revelation xx:4). Then we read ‘“‘But the rest 
of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were 
finished. This is the first resurrection”? (Revelation xx:5). 
The thousand years are literal years when the Lord Jesus 
Christ will reign and His Saints with Him; then He judgeth 
the earth in righteousness. And after the thousand years 
are ended His voice will be heard again, and a second resurrec- 
tion takes place of the wicked dead. The description of it 
we find in Revelation xx:11-15. 

Verse 30-31. Some have pronounced this utterance of 
our Lord as one of the most difficult in the entire Gospel. 
We pass by these supposed difficulties, for the believing heart 
finds none in these words. It is evident that our Lord speaks 
once more of His oneness with the Father, which makes it 
unalterably impossible to do anything solely of Himself. 
His relation to the Father, as one with Him, necessitates that 
all He does must be done just as the Father does it, and never 
separately from Him. As very man He had of course a 
will, but that was in entire subjection to the Father; it 
could not be otherwise. An ancient writer (Chrysostom) 
comments on this verse as follows: ‘Just as when we say it 
is impossible for God to do wrong, we do not impute to Him 
any weakness, but confess in Him an unutterable power; 
so also when Christ saith ‘I can of mine own self do no- 
thing,’ the meaning is that it is impossible,—my nature 
admits not—that I could do anything contrary to the 
Father.” These words therefore do not mean, as some 
teach, that He is not very God, but they are the evidences 
of His oneness with God. It is the same truth as we found 
it in the nineteenth verse of this chapter. And He judged 
as He heard, therefore His judgment must be just and will 
be just in all the future judgments committed into His 
hands as the Son of Man. It shows that all He heard 
(from the Father) is manifested by Himself, and therefore 
what He utters is the Word and Will of God. But if He 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1 


bore witness alone, just He Himself, this witness would 
not be true. It does not mean in the least that if He were 
only to witness of Himself, that this witness would be a 
false witness. He spoke to the Jews, and in point of law a 
self-witness, uncorroborated, is invalid and open to suspicion. 
The law demanded at least two witnesses. And of the 
other witnesses He speaks next. 

Verse 32. Not a few have applied these words to the 
witness which John the Baptist gave of Him. But this is 
incorrect. The use of the word “witnesseth” excludes this 
application, for John had witnessed, but had passed away; 
but here is One who witnesseth, that is a witness which 
continues. ‘The witness whom our Lord means is the Father 
Himself. Then follows the threefold witness of the Father— 
the witness of John the Baptist; the works the Father gave 
Him to do, bearing witness that the Father had sent Him; and 
the witness of the Scriptures. 

Verses 33-35. They themselves had sent unto that 
remarkable prophet who had arisen in their midst, John the 
Baptist (John i:19). As the witness he had borne testimony 
to the Truth. They well knew the great witness this unim- 
peachable witness had borne in pointing to Him as greater 
than himself. In his light they had been willing to rejoice for a 
season, when all Judea and Jerusalem went out with many 
of the religious leaders of the people. The Lord thus bears 
witness that what John had said concerning Himself, that 
He is the Christ, the Lamb of God, who was before him, is 
true. But did He need this testimony? Was it necessary 
that He should receive a testimony from man as to His 
own person? Or did He seek such a testimony as others 
do? His claim does in no way depend upon such a human 
witness, but He permits it and uses it that they might 
believe on Him and be saved. How this reveals His loving 
heart, so deeply concerned about their salvation! But 
John’s witness pales in the presence of the greater witness. 

Verses 36-38. John did no miracles, yet for a time at 
least they were ready to receive him, and believed that he 
might be the Christ. The miracles Christ had performed 
were the positive evidences that God had sent Him. The 
honoured Nicodemus, the great teacher in Israel, was con- 


112 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


vinced of that (Chapter iii-2). When later in Solomon’s 
porch they asked Him “Tell us plainly if Thou art the 
Christ,” He answered, ““The works that I do in my Father’s 
Name, they bear witness of Me” (x:25). They could never 
deny the fact of His miracles. ‘The system which is far 
worse and more damnable than anything else, the Destruc- 
tive Criticism, may deny His miracles; the thousands who 
beheld them, who saw the blind restored to sight, the de- 
mons driven out, the lepers cleansed and the dead raised, 
could never doubt. They did not dare to deny them, but 
some attempted to explain them in that blasphemous sug- 
gestion, that they were wrought by the powers of Satan. 
(See Matthew xii). They were the miracles given to Him 
to do by the Father; the display of the Father’s power as 
well as His own. 

“Five things should always be noted about our Lord’s 
miracles. (1) Their number, they were not a few only, 
but very many. (2) Their greatness, they were not little, 
but mighty interferences with the ordinary course of nature. 
(3) Their publicity, they were not done generally in a corner, 
but in open day, and before many witnesses, and often 
before enemies. (4) Their character, they were almost 
always works of love, mercy and compassion, helpful and 
beneficial to man, and not merely barren exhibition of power. 
(5) Their direct appeal to men’s senses, they were visible, 
and would bear any examination. The difference between 
them and the boasted miracles of Rome, on all these points, 
is striking and instructive.’’* 

And besides these miracles the Father had witnessed of 
Him. His voice they had never heard, nor had they ever 
seen any appearance of Him. They had no knowledge of 
God, nor had they His Word abiding in themselves, the 
Word in which the Father’s voice is heard concerning His 
Son. For this reason they did not believe on Him whom 
the Father had sent. To believe on Christ necessitates first 
of all belief in the Word of God; when the Word of God is 
disowned, Christ also must eventually be rejected. This 
important truth, the witness of the Scriptures, is next given 
by our Lord. 





*Expository Thoughts on John. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 113 


Verses 39-43. They searched the Scriptures (the Old 
Testament) and thought that they found in them eternal life, 
but they really did not search the Scriptures, for if they had 
they would have recognized Him whom the Father sent. 
“‘They testify of Me.” In Hebrews x:7 we also find the same 
testimony by our Lord, “In the volume of the Book it is 
written of Me.” Martin Luther once asked, ‘“‘What Book 
and what Person?’—“‘There is only one Book”’ was his reply 
—‘“‘the Scriptures; and only one Person—Jesus Christ.’”? The 
Lord Jesus Christ is throughout the Scriptures revealed in 
many ways, not only in direct prophecies, but. in types and 
in the levitical institutions. All this is known to every child 
of God. But it needs restatement in these days when the 
authority and inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures 
are so widely denied. Our Lord endorses the Jewish Canon, 
as it was then, and as it is now, as the Word and revelation 
of Himself. The Critics, boasting of scholarship, audaciously 
calling it even “reverend Criticism,’ deny this completely. 
If we refer them to this passage they tell us that our Lord 
but accommodated Himself to the current opinion of His 
times, but that in reality He did not mean to assert His own 
belief in these writings. What this involves we would 
rather leave unsaid. 

The Scriptures bear their infallible witness both to His 
Person and to His work. How well Philip of Bethsaida 
spoke when he said to Nathanael—‘‘We have found Him of 
whom Moses in the Law, and the prophets did write’ 
(1:45). He had searched the Scriptures, hence he believed 
on Christ as the promised one. And we also must search 
the Scriptures and find anew that they testify of Him, whom 
we know as our Saviour-Lord. Then follows that saddest 
of all words, “‘Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have 
life.’ What a word this is! It gives us the solemn reason 
why men are lost. 

The Greek is more emphatic than the English version; 
it is more than “‘Ye will not come”; it means literally ren- 
dered “Ye do not will to come.” After hearing His won- 
derful testimony, the different witnesses He had marshalled, 
they still refused to believe on Him, and had no heart and 
no desire to come to Him to receive that life which He alone 


114 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


can give. But He did not speak thus in their hearing be- 
cause He desired honor from men. It was spoken for 
only one purpose, for their own good. But He knew as the - 
omniscient One what was in their hearts; though they 
professed to be worshippers of God, the real love of God 
had no place in them. This fact was evidenced by not 
receiving Him who had come to them as the love-gift of 
the Father. If they loved and honored the Father they 
would never have rejected the Son. 

Then He uttered a prophecy. “If another shall come in his 
own name, him ye will receive.”” The words have been true 
in the past. After the death and resurrection of our Lord, 
during the first century of our era, over three score false 
Messiahs appeared among the Jews. They all came in their 
own names and were miserable deceivers, yet no matter how 
brazen they were, each had a vast following, and each led 
them to disaster. But this prophecy remains still to be 
fulfilled, for our Lord predicts that final Antichrist, the 
man of sin. The argument often raised about the person- 
ality of this Antichrist is settled by this passage of Scripture. 
He will be a Jew, for the Jews would not accept a Messiah 
unless he is of their own race. This Antichrist is the second 
Beast in Revelation xiii, coming out of Israel’s land; the first 
Beast is the little horn of Daniel vii, the head of the Roman 
Empire and as such an apostate Gentile. The early Church 
believed that the Lord predicted in His words the Antichrist 
as he is to be revealed before the second Coming of Christ. 

Verses 44-47. According to the word of the Lord, those 
who look for the honor which comes from man cannot 
believe. Seeking the praise of man is the constant tendency 
of the heart of man and excludes true faith, for true faith 
looks not to man but to God, and seeks the honor which 
comes from the only God. Such was the condition of the 
Jews and especially the condition of their leaders. And such 
is the condition of the great professing Christendom and their 
ritualistic and rationalistic heads. Still they boasted in 
Moses. While the Jews speak of Abraham as “‘our father,” 
they call Moses “‘our teacher.”? By not believing the writ- 
ings of Moses, Moses himself in whom they trusted became 
their accuser. Even today they read his books, the Penta- 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 115 


teuch, and these are the accusing witnesses of their unbelief. 
If they believed Moses they would also believe Him, for 
Moses wrote of Christ. Every believer who studies the 
five books which were written by Moses knows what a 
wealth of truth they contain relating to the Person of our 
Lord and His work as Prophet, Priest and King. It is 
simply unsearchable. Yet that pernicious, infidel school, 
Destructive Criticism, claims that Moses never wrote any- 
thing and some go so far as to doubt the very existence of 
this man. But how true what the Son of God says in 
conclusion of this remarkable discourse. “But if ye believe 
not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?’ Reject 
Moses and you reject Me. Such has been the road of 
apostasy and the end is not yet reached. Well has the 
late William Kelly summed it up in the following paragraph. 

“What an estimate of the authority of those very Scrip- 
tures, which self-sufficient men have assailed as untrust- 
worthy! They dare to tell us that they are neither Mosaic 
in origin, nor Messianic in testimony, but a mass of legends 
which do not even cohere in their poor and human reports 
of early days. On the other hand, the Judge of all declares 
that these Scriptures testify of Him, and that Moses wrote 
of Him, setting the written word in point of authority above 
even His words. As the Lord Jesus Christ and Rationalism 
are thus in direct antagonism, the Christian has no hesitation 
which to receive and which to reject, for one cannot serve 
both masters. Either he will hate the one and love the 
other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. So 
it is, and must be, and ought to be; for Christ and Rational- 
ism (Destructive Criticism) are irreconcilable. ‘Those who 
pretend to serve both have no principle as to either, and are 
the most corrupting of all men. They not only do not possess 
the Truth, but they make the love of it impossible, and are 
enemies alike of God and man.” 


116 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


CHAPTER VI 


Verses 1-4. John passes over many months of the minis- 
try of our Lord and does not report what else happened in 
Jerusalem. The great miracle of the healing of the impotent 
man and the subsequent discourse of our Lord, as given inthe 
previous chapter is not mentioned by the synoptics, and John 
in his Gospel does not record the greater part of the ministry 
of the Lord in Galilee. In all this we see the divine guiding 
hand of the Spirit of God. He did not lead Matthew, Mark 
and Luke to write of the healing of the man at the pool 
of Bethesda and the words which were spoken then, for He 
intended to use the pen of John to reveal these things in har- 
mony with the scope of the fourth Gospel. 

A great multitude followed Him. Mark explains how 
they followed the Lord as He crossed the lake. ‘‘And the 
people saw them departing, and many knew Him, and ran 
afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came 
together unto Him” (Mark vi:33). While the Lord entered 
into a ship to take Him to the other side of the lake, the 
multitude went on foot around the lake to the place where 
the ship landed. What kind of a multitude they were we 
learn from the chapter itself. Like those mentioned in the 
close of the second chapter, they believed in a certain way 
because they had seen the miracles. Many of them evidently 
claimed discipleship, but after the words of our Lord spoken 
concerning Himself as the bread of life many of these pro- 
fessing disciples went back and walked no more with Him 
(Verse 66). ‘The time was immediately before another 
Passover, here significantly called a feast of the Jews. 

Verses 5-14. This great event is also fully recorded by 
the three preceding Gospels, where we find additional facts 
connected with the feeding of the five thousand. He saw 
this great multitude and was moved with compassion for 
they were as sheep having no shepherd (Mark vi:34); He 
also taught them many things. 

Here we read that He asked Philip ‘“‘whence shall we buy 
bread that these may eat?” From Luke’s Gospel we learn 
that the place was near Bethsaida. Philip was of that place 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 117 


(John i:44) and that is probably the reason why the Lord 
asked him about supplying the need of the hungry people. 
But He did not ask thus because He was perplexed; it was to 
try Philip. Philip might have answered—Oh! Lord, Thou 
knowest and Thine is all power! One would expect such 
an answer, for Philip had heard Nathanael’s great confession 
“Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel.” 
But the question the Lord asked is blessedly guarded by the 
Spirit of God through the writer of the record—‘“He Himself 
knew what He would do.”’ The miracle of the feeding of the © 
multitude was one of the works the Father gave Him to do; 
He knew all about what He would do and what should take 
place, for He is the same who gave Israel the bread in the 
wilderness (Exodus xvi). Then the brother of Simon Peter, 
Andrew, called His attention to the lad with the five barley 
loaves and the two fishes, and he was but a little boy (the 
meaning of the Greek word), hence the loaves must have 
been very small. But how could this insignificant supply 
satisfy the needs of this vast crowd of people? He did not need 
the two hundred pennyworth; the little things are chosen by 
Him to manifest His power; yea, He could have fed them all 
without the use of the five loaves and the two fishes. ‘Then 
He speaks. They were told to sit down, as.we learn from 
Mark’s Gospel, in perfect order in ranks of hundreds and 
fifties. What a beautiful scene it must have been, these five 
thousand men, besides the women and children, peacefully 
resting in the place of “much grass’! It suggests the green 
pastures into which He leads His people (Psalm xxiii:2; 
John x:9). 

And with what expectancy they all must have looked to 
Him as He stood in the midst! Then He took the loaves 
and after giving thanks He distributed to the disciples, and 
the disciples distributed to them that sat down. It must 
have been in that moment, after He had given thanks and 
handed the loaves to the disciples, that the miraculous 
multiplication of the loaves and fishes took place. Being 
one of His great signs, wrought by Him, the omnipotent 
Lord, it is unexplainable. There is a tendency manifested 
in our times, even among men who hold to the inspiration 
of the Bible, to explain some of the miracles of the Bible as 


118 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


natural occurrences. This has been done with the miracle 
of the parting of the Red Sea, the miracle of the sun stand- 
ing still in Joshua’s day, and others. As soon as a miracle 
can be explained it ceases to be a miracle. Some of the 
rationalistic critics have attempted to explain away this 
miracle also. Some have suggested that the seated com- 
pany all brought out the provisions they carried with them, 
and that this is how they were fed. But all these explana- 
tions, the inventions of pure infidelity, are so ridiculously 
silly that they do not deserve an answer. It has been well 
said “it requires more faith to believe their explanations 
than to believe the miracle and take it as we find it.” With- 
out question the feeding of this immense company was a 
wonderful manifestation of the power of the Creator,, who, 
though in creature’s form, had not divested Himself of the 
attributes of Godhead. 

And after this miraculous feast provided by Himself 
He commanded that the fragments be gathered up “that 
nothing be lost,’ another wonderful fact, that the omni- 
potent Lord should care even for the fragments of what 
He called into existence. How true it is in all His creation. 
In nature, so wonderfully fashioned and ordered by His 
hands, nothing is lost. And if He thus orders and main- 
tains such a principle it behooves us to reckon with it in 
all our ways. 

Twelve baskets were filled with the fragments, abundant 
evidence that a great miracle had been performed, for what 
was left over was perhaps a hundred times more than the 
original supply.* 

The great sign He wrought has also a striking dispensa- 
tional meaning. While He revealed Himself thus as the 
omnipotent Lord, the loving, caring Lord, He is likewise 
seen as Israel’s King. We read in Psalm cxxxii a prophecy 
which fits in with the scene before us. “For the Lord 
hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. 
This is my rest forever; here will I dwell; for I have de- 
sired it. I will abundantly bless her provision, I will satisfy 





*It was a custom of the Jews that when they are together they should 
leave something to those that served. The little portion which each one 
left was called “the servants’ part.”? The baskets were probably the 
baskets the Jews carried with them in their travels. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 119 


her poor with bread” (Verses 13-15). This will be fully 
realized in the coming kingdom. And He had come as the 
promised King; He was in their midst and when He thus 
satisfied them with bread and abundantly blessed their 
provision, they might have beheld in Him their King. The 
twelve baskets too have a meaning, for twelve is the number 
of Israel. That they had some conception of all this we 
learn from what followed. When they saw this miracle they 
said ““This is in truth the Prophet that should come into the 
world.”” ‘The reference is to Deuteronomy xviii:15-16, and 
from John 1:21 we learn that the delegation from Jerusalem 
suspected that John the Baptist might be “‘that Prophet.” 
Ancient Jewish interpretation states that the Prophet 
promised in Deuteronomy is the Messiah. 

Verse 15. Perhaps they gathered in groups talking 
together and scheming to make Him a leader, to make Him 
a king, but not “The King.’ And He knew their carnal 
plans. This was but another attempt inspired by the same 
being, who on the mountain top had shown to Him the 
Kingdoms of the earth, and had offered them to Him. Here 
through the enthused multitudes, because He had satisfied 
their wants, Satan tried to achieve his end once more, quite 
willing to have Him to receive the crown without going first 
to the cross, where alone His crown rights in redemption 
through the shedding of His blood could forever be secured 
and established. But all they meant was to use Him for 
their own selfish ends, to make Him some kind of a ringleader, 
to lead in a revolt against the Roman government, so that 
they might be freed from the Gentile yoke. ‘They wanted to 
make him a king; they erred and knew not the Scriptures, 
which foretold that He must suffer first and that God Him- 
self would enthrone Him as King upon the holy hill of Zion, 
to receive the nations for His inheritance and the utter- 
most parts of the earth for His possessions. Then when He 
appears crowned with many crowns, as King of kings and 
Lord of lords, when the true remnant of Israel bows before 
Him in true humiliation and looks upon Him whom they 
pierced, the promised blessings of the cxxxii Psalm, and 
the many other prophecies as to the millennial glories, will 
be accomplished. And when here He suddenly departs into 


120 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


a mountain alone to spend the whole night there, we see 
readily how this foreshadows His ascension, to be in the 
presence of God throughout this age. Their scheming to 
use Him in a carnal way had revealed their own heart. 
They knew nothing of a true turning to God. What Hosea 
had declared, “‘I will go and return to my place” was fulfilled 
“ill they acknowledge their offence and seek my face.” 
And that will be ‘“‘in their affliction” (the coming great 
tribulation) when they will say ‘“‘Come, and let us return 
unto the Lord” (See Hosea v:15; vi:1-3). 

Verse 16-21. The sea, the night during which He is 
absent, the storm, are symbolical of the present age. The 
incident is fully reported in Matthew’s Gospel. (See our 
Exposition of Matthew.) It is thus because of the dispensa- 
tional-Jewish character of the first Gospel. When we read 
in that Gospel of Peter leaving the little ship to go forth to 
meet the Lord, we have a beautiful type of the Church, while 
the ship with the frightened disciples represents the Jewish 
remnant as it existed when He left the earth to return to 
heaven, and a similar remnant which will be on earth before 
He returns from heaven for their deliverance. Like it was 
on that sea so it is with this age. It is getting darker and 
the wind more boisterous. And how God’s people even now 
may say “‘it is now dark and Jesus has not yet come.” But 
we know He will come for Hisown. And after that comes the 
great darkness and the great storm with which this age 
closes. 

Then another miracle took place. He came walking on 
the sea. The so-called laws of nature were entirely sus- 
pended. He who is the author of these laws can do as it 
pleaseth Him. Of course “the scholarly” and “reverend” 
critics have also set aside this miracle, and probably some 
scientist will explain it in some “natural way” or that it may 
have been an “illusion.”? But the giving up of the belief in 
the miraculous must lead ultimately, and in most cases 
speedily, to the giving up of all revealed Truth. The dis- 
ciples knew they were face to face with a supernatural oc- 
currence, for they were afraid. But precious is that voice 
which was heard by them above the noise of breaking waves 
and howling tempest—“‘It is I; be not afraid.” May we 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 121 


all, dear readers, hear that same voice speaking to our 
hearts. The practical remark has often been made, that 
many of the things which frighten Christians and fill them 
with anxiety, would cease to frighten them if they would 
endeavor to see the Lord Jesus in all, ordering every provi- 
dence, and overruling everything, so that not a hair falls to 
the ground without Him. ‘They are happy who hear His 
voice through the thickest cloud and darkness and above 
the loudest winds and storms, saying “It is I; be not afraid.” 

And when He came, how glad they were to receive Him. 
And when He came, how quickly the storm ended and the 
ship was brought to the land. So will it be when He comes 
again. The darkness will end; the storm will cease. His 
Church will be with Him and the remnant of Israel will be 
brought to the promised haven. 

What we have followed up to this point may be termed 
the introduction to the great truths concerning the special 
message of this Gospel, the message of eternal life, which we 
find in the rest of this great chapter. 

Verses 22-25. The multitudes were evidently greatly 
puzzled about the disappearance of Him who had fed them so 
miraculously. ‘They did not know how He could have come 
to Capernaum. They took shipping and had come to Caper- 
naum, seeking for Jesus. A difficulty has been raised here 
by the supposition that all the five thousand men had fol- 
lowed Him. Criticism, trying to pick flaws, has stated how 
impossible it would have been to have ships for this large 
company of people to cross the lake. But the supposition 
is incorrect. It does not say that all those who had been 
fed by the Lord on the previous day crossed Tiberias in ships. 
Matthew tells us that He sent the multitudes away (Matthew 
xiv:22). The great majority went to their homes, or con- 
tinued their journey towards Jerusalem to celebrate Passover 
there. There is nothing whatever in the text to show that 
all the people crossed the lake, probably only a small number 
followed Him. They found Him right on the seashore. But 
if we read on in this chapter we discover that thé words 
which our Lord spoke at this time, the great discourse, was 
not delivered at the sea shore, but in the synagogue of Caper- 
naum. “These things said He in the synagogue, as He 


122 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


taught in Capernaum”’ (Verse 59). This is the conclusive 
evidence that not all the five thousand men were present, 
but just a small number. The question prompted by their 
curiosity, ‘“‘Rabbi, when camest Thou hither?’ He left 
unanswered. 

Verses 26-29. The Lord, the searcher of hearts, knew why 
they had followed Him. They did not seek Him because 
they believed on Him as the Son of God; they did not even 
seek Him, as it is stated in the beginning of the chapter, 
“because they saw His miracles,” but they sought Him for a 
very selfish reason. Their motive was thoroughly carnal. 
“Ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because 
ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.”’ Before this they 
wanted to make Him King and He suddenly disappeared, 
because He knew that the same selfish desire was behind it. 
And so He is still the discerner of the thoughts of men and 
knows the innermost motives of the heart. How many there 
are today who make a religious profession, who claim to seek 
the Lord and follow Him, but the “loaves and fishes” are 
underneath all their religiousness. This is especially true 
today in some heathen lands where destitution prevails and 
relief from earthly want is offered; it is likewise true in the 
larger cities of our land. 

Then He resumes His blessed teaching concerning eternal 
life. He exhorts not to labour for the food which perisheth 
but for that food which endureth unto eternal life. They 
had followed Him strenuously to obtain perishing food, that 
which sustains the physical life; He tells them to work for 
the food which abideth unto life eternal and this eternal life, 
which man cannot obtain by working for it, He, the Son of 
Man whom the Father sealed, is able to give. The latter 
expression means that He as Son of Man is accredited by 
God as His Son, sealed by the gift of the Spirit, with power to 
give eternal life (Chapter xvii:2). He is the giver of both, 
the life and the food that abides unto eternal life; and He 
Himself is the life and the food. In His own blessed, all- 
wise way He begins once more to feel His way to their 
hearts and consciences as He had done with the woman at 
the well. They ran after Him, exerted all their physical 
energy to get more of the bread that perisheth, as the woman 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 123 


had come for the water to Samaria’s well. He uses their 
selfish desire to teach them the greater need. 

Henry Martyn, the noble Apostle of India and Persia, who 
gave his young life in October 1812, was greatly discouraged 
in preaching to the poor Hindoos at Dinapore, India. He 
was tempted to give up the work entirely for he discovered 
they did not care a bit for his preaching, they had no desire 
to listen to the Gospel, and only came for temporal relief, to 
receive the bread that perisheth. But one day the young 
man was reading the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John 
and when he read this verse he said: “‘If the Lord Jesus was 
not ashamed to preach to mere bread-seekers, who am I, that 
I should give over in disgust?” He had learned from Him 
and so can we follow His blessed example. 

And what answer did they give Him? It is the answer of 
the darkened heart of the natural man. “What shall we do 
that we might work the works of God?’ He had spoken of 
*“‘Labouring not for the food which perisheth” and now they 
are ready to work* for the food that abideth; they speak of 
working the works of God. ‘Their poor hearts did not realize 
that they were sinners, that the guilt and curse of sin was 
resting upon them; nor did they reckon with the Holy 
character of God. They thought themselves capable of 
satisfying God with their works, and by working obtain life 
and favour with God. What the human heart was then it is 
now. It has not changed in the least, but is still as blind 
and corrupt as it always has been. It is the “‘Cain-heart”’ 
and though there may be a religious profession, a form of 
godliness, as Cain had it, yet it is solemnly true of the natural 
man as it was of Cain, “the way of peace have they not 
known; there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 
11:17-18). The natural man thinks he can do something 
and by doing he will make himself acceptable with God. 
And thus they speak of “the golden rule,” as if man had 
inherent capacity to practice it. Or someone else says 
““do some good deed every day”’’; as if good deeds are the way 
to peace and glory. Even pagans have done this, as it is 


*The word “‘work” is the same in the Greek as “‘labor”’ in the preced- 
ing verse, 


124 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


said of Emperor Titus that he declared when a day passed 
without a good deed, “‘I have lost a day.” 

Without laying bare the delusion of their hearts or con- 
demning their presumption, the Lord told them what they 
were todo. “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the 
work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” 
It is the same as in the previous chapter. ‘He that heareth 
my words and believeth Him that sent Me hath eternal 
life” (v:24). The only thing they could do was to believe 
on Him, and this faith in Him is the work of God, while the 
object of faith is He whom the Father sent, the Son of God. 
This is the common starting point for every sinner; there 
cannot, nor ever will be, another. ‘‘Now to him that work- 
eth is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to 
him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth 
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 
iv:4-5). Later when an awakened sinner cried out ‘‘What 
must I do to be saved?’ the answer was given at once by 
the Spirit of God, ‘‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts xvi:31). This is still 
the answer to the most momentous question of human 
existence. Faith may therefore well be termed the greatest 
work of all works; the one work which pleaseth God, for with- 
out faith it is impossible to please Him. 

Verses 30-40. The words of the Lord to believe brought 
forth a manifestation of their unbelief. While He has said 
that the work of God is to believe on Him whom the Father 
hath sent, they demanded a sign, which they could see and 
then believe, not on Him, but believe Him. Is spite of 
having witnessed that great sign, the feeding of the multitude 
on the previous day, they ask for a sign, and the question 
“What dost thou work?” It has always been so with the 
Jews; only when they saw the signs which Moses and Aaron 
did in their presence they believed. This tendency is stated 
by Paul in the Epistle to the Corinthians, ‘““The Jews require 
a sign” (1 Corinthians i:22). Their reasoning must have 
been something like this—‘“‘He did a miracle in feeding the 
multitudes, but what is this in comparison with what hap- 
pened in the history of our fathers? Our fathers did eat 
manna in the desert; he, that is Moses, gave them bread from 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 125 


heaven. Moses fed a far greater number than this man fed; 
his miracle is not as great as the miracle Moses did. What 
sign showest thou us, that we may see, and believe Thee?”’ 

But they were mistaken and the Lord corrects their mis- 
take. Not Moses gave them that bread from heaven, “but 
my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.” From 
the words of the unbelieving Jews we learn that they at 
least believed in the historical fact that their forefathers were 
miraculously fed in the wilderness. ‘The modern Bible - 
Criticism rejects this and denies the truthfulness of the 
record in Exodus. What evil such a denial involves we learn 
from this passage, for our Lord confirms the miracle in the 
wilderness; a denial therefore impeaches His knowledge and 
His veracity. But while our Lord confirmed the truth- 
fulness of the event, He speaks of the true bread from heaven, 
which the Father giveth, the bread which is come down from 
heaven, that is, He Himself. ‘‘For the bread of God is He 
which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the 
world.” He is more than that manna which was given; He 
has come from heaven, not to sustain physical life, but to 
give eternal life, not for Israel alone, but for the world. 

Then they answered Him, “Lord, evermore give us this 
bread.” Like the Samaritan woman, who had said when 
the Lord spoke of living water “‘give me this water,” they 
felt that He spoke of something higher and better which 
they were not able to grasp. ‘Then He spoke, as only He 
could speak, yet to ears which would not hear nor under- 
stand. “I am the Bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall 
never hunger, and he that believeth in Me shall never 
thirst.” Even so He had spoken to the Samaritan at 
Jacob’s well, ““Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 
give him shall never thirst.”” Both water and bread are 
necessary for human existence, and as such indispensable. | 
But man’s spiritual need is life,and the Son of Man who 
came from heaven is that life, and sustains it; apart from 
Him, there is no life for sinful man. 

As we follow the wonderful words of our Lord concerning 
Himself as the bread of life, we shall see the blessed way 
in which He leads on in the true and full meaning of this 
term. Here he states the fact that he is the bread of 


126 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


life, and that “He that cometh unto Me shall never hunger, 

and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.’ Man 

must come to Him and believe on Him in order not to 

hunger and not to thirst, but to be satisfied. The words 

“Come” and “Believe” mean practically the same thing. 

What He is and what He gives must be appropriated, 

and that is accomplished by coming to Him, and believing 

on Him. To come to Christ is to believe on Him, and to 

believe on Him is to come to Him. Both expressions mean 

that act of the soul whereby, under a sense of its sins and 

necessity, it flees to Christ, lays hold on Christ, trusts 

in Christ and casts itself on Christ. “Coming” is the\ 
soul’s movement towards Christ. ‘‘Believing” is the | 
soul’s venture on Christ. And He assures us that He 
will satisfy. He satisfies the soul to the full, and the soul 

who trusteth in Him, though weak and erring, shall never 

hunger nor thirst in all eternity; believers in Christ can never 

be cast off nor can they ever be forsaken.* But he knew 

their unbelieving hearts; they had seen Him, yet believed 

not. They would not believe and come to Him to have life, 

to receive the true bread. Such is the unbelieving heart 

of man. 

Who then will come unto Him? He gives the 
answer. “All that the Father giveth Me shall come unto 
Me; and him that cometh unto Me I will in nowise cast 
out.” Blessed and most precious as these words are they 
have occasioned a great deal of controversy. What is 
known as ‘“‘Calvinism”’ has made much of the first clause, 
while the system called ““Arminianism” has used the second 
part of the statement of our Lord. The first question 
which confronts us is touching the word “all.”’ The literal 
meaning of the Greek is not all persons, but “‘everything,” 
for it is a neuter singular, and not a masculine plural. It 
means therefore the whole company of His elect people whom 
the Father has given to the Son. This gift was made to the 
Son by the Father before the foundation of the world (Ephe- 
sians i:4); it is the election of God in His own Sovereignty. 


*The better translation is ‘‘shall in nowise hunger” . . . “shall 
in nowise thirst.”” It is the same as in John x,“shall in nowise perish”; 
words which speak of the assurance of salvation, that believers in Christ 
are saved and safe. 





THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 127 


There is an elect body, and of this body our Lord speaks, that 
it is given to Him and that each member of that elect body 
will come to Him. This is a blessed and most comforting 
truth for God’s people. They are the gift of the Father to 
the Son, a gift He made when there was no world and no 
human being. Often the question has been asked by those 
who do not believe in God’s electing grace—how can I know 
that I really belong to that elect company? Every believer 
who has accepted Christ and belongs to Him can rest assured 
that he belongs to this elect body, and is given to the Son by 
the Father. Beza said, “Faith in Christ is a certain testi- 
mony of our election, and consequently of our future glorifi- 
cation.” And all who are given to Christ will also come to 
Him; no power can keep them from coming. Of course 
here are mysteries which our poor finite minds cannot solve 
nor fully understand. We believe the plain statements of 
Scripture as to election, but we also believe that the Gospel 
message is for all and knows nothing of election. In ““The 
Gospel and its Ministry” the late Sir Robert Anderson gives 
valuable light on the question which has puzzled so many 
Christians. 

‘““When the gift of life was proffered us, we were conscious 

in accepting it that we did so freely, voluntarily. 
But now that we have received the message, and are come 
within the scene of joy and blessing to which it bid us, we 
have to learn that, in a deeper sense and fuller still, grace is 
sovereign. ‘The Gospel of our salvation spanned the open 
door of grace as we approached it; above the inner portal, we 
now read the words, ‘Chosen in Him before the foundation 
of the world.’ 

“‘And surely this mystery of election is both fitted and 
intended to bring deep blessing to the believing heart; but 
the sad fact is too patent to be ignored, that with a vast 
majority of Christians it is so inseparably linked with con- 
troversy as to be removed from blessing altogether. Upon 
one side, the plain testimony of Scripture is tampered with, 
if not rejected; upon the other, the doctrine of election is 
asserted with a narrowness which is uncongenial, if not 
absolutely incompatible with truth.—How can grace be 
compatible with election? ‘The Gospel proclaims reconcilia- 


128 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


tion for all and grace is ‘salvation-bringing to all men.’ 
Election on the other hand, assumes that the believer’s 
blessings are the result of a divine decree. These, it is 
objected, are wholly inconsistent, and one or the other of 
them must be explained away. Doubtless they may appear 
to be incompatible, but to maintain that therefore they are so 
in fact, is to put reason above revelation, or in other words to 
place man above God.” 

That God wants all men to be saved and is not willing that 
any should perish shows that hyper-Calvinism, which 
claims that God has foreordained a part of the human 
race to eternal damnation, cannot be true. And here our 
Lord adds another statement, “Him that cometh unto 
Me I will in nowise cast out.’ Here then is His own 
gracious assurance that He will receive every one who 
cometh unto Him; He will in nowise cast out those who 
have believed on Him. All may come to Him; all are in- 
vited to come and those who do come are received and kept 
by Him. Whatever may happen they can never be cast 
out. “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own 
will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the 
Father’s will who hath sent Me, that of all He hath given 
Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the 
last day.”’ He came down from heaven (another great wit- 
ness to His pre-existence) and He came to do the will of God, 
the will which concerns the salvation of those given to Him, 
and none of them can be lost, and that body will be raised up 
when the consummation comes. ‘The fuller revelation as to 
the first resurrection, the resurrection of those who died 
having believed on Him, and the changing of those who live 
and believe on Him when He comes for His Saints (1 Thes- 
salonians iv:13-18) was not given by our Lord while on 
earth, but this blessed Hope in its full revelation was made 
known in a special way to the Apostle Paul. It belongs to 
the “many things’ which the Lord promised to reveal 
“afterwards,” that is after His death and resurrection. 

Then once more the blessed and assuring statement, 
which should fill the heart of every child of God with joy, 
and his lips with praises—‘‘every one which seeth the Son, 
and believeth on Him, may have eternal life.” 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 129 


Verses 41-46. The Lord had finished His testimony con- 
cerning Himself as the bread come down from heaven. 
They had listened to Him and it may have been at this point, 
when He had arrived at the synagogue, where He continued 
to speak the words which follow. Then the Jews murmured 
at Him, like their fathers did in the wilderness. They 
objected to what He had said as to being “‘the bread of life 
which came down from heaven,” and the reason why they 
objected was because they thought Him to be the son of 
Joseph. “Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father 
and mother we know? How is it then that He saith, I 
came down from heaven?” And their murmurings would 
have been fully justified, if what they said was true. If He 
was ‘‘the son of Joseph,” if Joseph was His father, and if 
He was therefore born like any other man was born, then 
His claim to be the bread come down from heaven was not 
true. And what the Jews said at that time we hear today 
throughout the camp of Christendom, a brazen denial of 
His Virgin birth. If this denial were true then He would 
not be the Saviour of man, nor the bread of life. Thus the 
Virgin birth is the great foundation rock of our faith. 

The Jews might have known from their own Scripture 
that the Messiah had to be born of a Virgin (Isaiah vii:14). 
The blessed facts of His birth, as found in the first chapter 
of Matthew and in the beginning of the Gospel of Luke, 
were not known to the Jews at that time. And the Lord 
answered them, “Murmur not among yourselves.” From 
this we may conclude that the murmuring was done secretly. 
They must have formed small groups standing around and 
reasoning in secret about Him. He knew their thoughts. 
But in answering them He did not explain the mystery of 
His Virgin birth. He knew He was surrounded by unbe- 
lievers, enemies who would before long deliver Him into the 
hands of the Gentiles. To tell such that He was conceived 
by the Holy Spirit, that Joseph was not His father, would 
have been that against which He warned, ‘‘Cast not pearls 
before swine.” He goes deeper in His words than a refutal 
of their erroneous belief and rejection of His) claim. In 
His answer the Lord Jesus utters the same truth’ as in verses 
37-40. ‘“‘No man can come to me, except the Father who 


130 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


hath sent me draw him.’ But while in the former passage 
He had spoken of the Father giving Him those which 
constitute the elect company, here He speaks of the Father 
drawing. ‘Those who are given to Him by the Father cannot 
come to Him and really believe on Him, unless the Father 
draws them tocome. ‘The nature of man,” it has been well 
said, “‘since the fall is so corrupt and depraved, that even 
when Christ is made known and preached to him, he will 
not come to Him and believe on Him without the special 
grace of God inclining his will, and giving him a disposition 
to come. Moral suasion and advice alone will not bring 
him. He must be ‘drawn.’ This is no doubt a very humbl- 
ing truth, and one which in every age has called forth the 
hatred and opposition of man. ‘The favorite notion of man 
is that he can do what he likes, repent or not repent, believe 
or not believe, come to Christ or not come,entirely at his own 
discretion. In fact man likes to think that his salvation is in 
his own power. Such notions are flatly contradictory to the 
text before us. The words of our Lord are clear and un- 
mistakable and cannot be explained away.’ And what 
about the modern methods in big evangelistic campaigns, 
where every possible device is used to have men and women 
take a stand, and then join some religious affiliation.* 
Cards are signed, there is handshaking, “hitting the trail,” 
a rather unsuited term for the blessed Gospel, and there are 
other schemes to bring men and women to decision. ‘To the 
writer it has always appeared as if such methods need not to 
be applied, if we believe that the Father will draw every 
soul, whom He has given to the Son, and that He will draw 
them to Him, to believe on Him, in His own wonderful way. 
The great business of the Evangelist is to preach the Gospel 
in a plain and simple way, and leave the drawing to the 
Spirit of God. Some remarks on this important statement 
of our Lord by Bishop Ryle of Liverpool are helpful. He 
says the following: 


“(a) We must never suppose that the doctrine of this 


*We have seen reports of some of these “‘card-system revivals,” in 


which it was stated that hundreds of these man-made converts joined 
Romish, Unitarian, Christian Science churches, and even Synagogues. 
What a farce! 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 131 


verse takes away man’s responsibility and accountableness 
to God for his soul. On the contrary, the Bible always 
distinctly declares that if any man is lost, it is his own fault. 
‘He loses his own soul’ (Mark viii:36). If we can not 
reconcile God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility now, 
we need not doubt that it will be all plain at the last day. 

““(b) We must not allow the doctrine of this verse to make 
us limit or narrow the offer of salvation to sinners. On the 
contrary, we must hold firmly that pardon and peace are to 
be offered freely through Christ to every man and woman 
without exception. We never know who they are that God 
will draw, and have nothing to do with it. Our duty is to 
invite all, and leave it to God to choose the vessels of mercy. 

“‘(c) We must not suppose that we, or anybody else, are 
drawn, unless we come to Christ by faith. This is the grand 
mark and evidence of any one being the subject of the 
Father’s drawing work. If ‘drawn,’ he comes to Christ, 
believes, and loves. Where there is no faith and love, there 
may be talk, self-conceit, and high profession. But there 
is no ‘drawing’ of the Father.” 

Then the Lord refers to Scripture, when He says “It is 
written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. 
Every man therefore who hath heard, and hath learned of 
the Father, cometh unto Me.” The words He quotes are 
found in Isaiah liv:13, and similar words elsewhere, as in 
Jeremiah xxxi:33-34. Those who come to Christ and are 
His shall be taught of God; but every man that comes to 
Christ hath first heard from the Father, and learned, so that 
all is of God and of sovereign grace. And God hath spoken 
in His Word and spoken concerning His Son, but no one 
hath seen the Father except the Son. 

Verse 47-59. With another “Verily, verily” the Lord 
takes up the interrupted teaching as to Himself. In verse 40 
He stated that he who believeth on Him should have eternal 
life, and now He speaks still more positively, “‘Verily, verily, 
I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath eternal life.” 
And to this He adds “I am that bread of life.” These are 
blessed words, words of life and words of peace. He the Son 
of God having come down from heaven, is the object of 
faith and assures the sinner who believes on Him that he 


132 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


hath eternal life. He is that bread of life—not His words, not 
His doctrines, but He Himself. They had spoken to Him 
about their fathers eating manna in the wilderness and He 
tells them the contrast. ‘“‘Your fathers (not our fathers, as 
the Apostles wrote later) did eat manna in the wilderness, 
and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from 
heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.”’ Their 
fathers had been unbelieving; they could not enter the 
promised land; they died in the wilderness, and though they 
ate the manna it did not save them. Then He speaks of 
Himself as the bread from heaven, so that man may eat 
thereof and not die, but have life. 

For the third time He mentions Himself as the bread of 
life, and adds that He is the living bread. Up to this point 
incarnation is in view; He came as the bread of life from 
heaven, and if man eats of this bread he shall live and not 
die. But now He tells us that the bread He gives is His 
flesh, which He will give for the life of the world. The flesh 
is His body, and that body He came to offer up in sacrifice 
on the cross. It is His great sacrificial work, which He now 
unfolds, when He says “‘the bread which I will give (not 
which I have given) is my flesh, which I will give for the life 
of the world.” He looked forward to the cross, where He 
would pay the redemption price by which eternal life was pur- 
chased for a lost world. 

Those who deny the sacrificial work of our Lord, His 
vicarious suffering and death, must pass by these words. 
They cannot be explained in any other way. No other 
explanation is possible. So clear and plain are these words 
of our Lord that no other meaning can be read into them. 
The bread which He gives is His flesh, and this, His body, 
He gives for the life of the world. 

It is interesting to read what Dr. Lyman Abbott wrote in 
1875 in his exposition of these verses. It is well known that 
this prominent “religious leader’ so-called, denied as an old 
man, this faith. ‘The words he wrote forty-six years ago con- 
demn him and the rest of the Congregational Unitarians. 
We quote from his commentary: 

“And the bread which I will give’-—note the future 
tense. He speaks therefore of a gift yet to be perfected by 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 133 


His passion and death—‘is my flesh, which I will give for 
the sake of the life of the world.’ Compare with John 
iii:16. It seems to me that these enigmatical words are 
added to guard the Church from falling into the error of 
supposing that Christ’s doctrine is the bread of life, and that 
to hear and believe His words as a Divine teacher is to secure 
the life eternal of which He speaks. This bread is not 
merely the teaching nor the example of Christ. The Sacri- 
fice is an essential principle of that spiritual food which He 
has provided for the world’s life.” But that is exactly what 
this man taught later, that the teachings and the example 
of Christ are to be followed, while the sacrificial death of 
Christ is denied. What an illustration of the warning 
given by our Lord in the sermon on the Mount, “If, there- 
fore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that 
darkness!” 

When the Jews heard that He spoke of His flesh they at 
once began to contend one with the other, ‘How can this 
man give us His flesh to eat?”? The question reveals once 
more, as it was in the case of Nicodemus and the woman at 
the well of Samaria, the darkened heart of the natural man. 

He answers by another “Verily, verily.””> He speaks of 
eating the flesh of the Son of Man, and drinking His blood, 
and except they do this they possess not life in them. “He 
that feedeth on my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal 
life, and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is 
truly food, and my blood is truly drink. He that feedeth 
on my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me and [| in 
him.” That these words cannot mean the eating of His 
flesh and the drinking of His blood in the literal sense of 
the word is apparent. It is figurative language. Ritual- 
istic Christendom teaches that our Lord means, what is 
called “‘the sacrament” of the Lord’s supper, that the 
flesh and the blood mean the bread and wine. But He 
does no more mean “the Lord’s supper” than He meant 
to teach “Baptism”? when He speaks of “born of the water 
and the Spirit’ in the third chapter. ‘The finest refutal of 
this obnoxious and unscriptual, as well as unreasonable 
theory, that our Lord meant “the Lord’s supper,” which has 
appeared in print, is the one which Bishop Ryle of the 


134 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


“Church of England” has furnished. It is not out of order 
to quote it in full, for ritualistic “Protestantism,” especially 
in Great Britain, is again accepting the old Romish heresy. 

“(1) To say that our Lord meant the Lord’s supper in 
this text is a most cruel and uncharitable opinion. It 
cuts off from eternal life all who do not receive the commun- 
ion. At this rate all who die in infancy and childhood,—all 
who die of full age without coming to the communion,— 
the whole body of the Quakers in modern times,—the peni- 
tent thief on the cross, all—all are lost for ever in hell! 
Our Lord’s words are stringent and exclusive. Such an 
opinion is too monstrous to be true. In fact, it was to avoid 
this painful conclusion that many early Christians, in 
Cyprian’s time, held the doctrine of infant communion. 

(2) ‘To say that our Lord meant the Lord’s supper in 
this text, opens a wide door to formalism and superstition. 
Thousands would wish nothing better than to hear,—‘He 
that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood,—that is, eats 
the sacramental bread and drinks the sacramental wine,— 
has eternal life.’ Here is precisely what the natural heart 
of man likes! He likes to go to heaven by formally using 
ordinances. ‘This is the very way in which millions in the 
Romish Church are making shipwreck of their souls. 

(3) To say that our Lord meant the Lord’s supper in 
the text, is to make a thing absolutely necessary to salva- 
tion which Christ never intended to be so. Our Lord com- 
manded us to use the Lord’s supper, but He never said that 
all who did use it would be saved, and all who did not use it 
would be lost. How many hundreds repent and are con- 
verted on their death-beds, far away from ministers and 
sacraments, and never receive the Lord’s supper! And will 
any one dare to say they are all lost?) A new heart and an 
interest in Christ’s cleansing blood are the two things nee- 
ful to salvation. We must have the Blood and the Spirit, 
or we have no life in us. Without them no heaven! But 
the Scripture never puts between a sinner and salvation an 
outward ordinance, over which the poor sinner may have 
no control, and may be unable to receive it, without any 
fatilt ‘of his owns « 

But what do His words mean? By flesh and blood, He 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 135 


meant the sacrifice of Himself on the Cross of Calvary. 
By eating and drinking He meant the act of faith, by which 
the soul participates in the most blessed and precious results 
of His substitutionary sacrifice. It is by faith we partake 
of it. Without it there is no life. In verse 53 He speaks of 
those who have accepted Him, partaken of His redemption 
purchased by the shedding of His blood, and therefore have 
life. In verses 54-56 He speaks of continuing in eating and 
drinking of Him. The believer must feed on Him. The 
eternal life we have can only be sustained, nourished and 
kept by Himself; hence must continue feeding on His dying 
love. Of this the Apostle speaks in His great confessions: 
“The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of 
the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”’ 
(Galatians 11:20). Eating and drinking of Him, we become 
one with Him—‘“He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my 
blood abideth in me and I in him.” 

Verses 60-66. The Lord had finished His great synagogue 
address. ‘The final word reminded them once more of the 
great truth He had taught them, and also of the contrast 
between the manna given in the wilderness, and Himself,the 
living bread from heaven. ‘This is that bread which came 
down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna, 
and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live 
forever.” 

And now we have before us the results which followed this 
wonderful teaching as to eternal life, as given and sustained 
by His sacrificial death. It is obvious that the “many dis- 
ciples’ who murmured and turned away from Him were 
not the twelve disciples. These did not murmur, though 
Judas, who betrayed Him, down in his heart, unbelieving as 
he was, probably also murmured. ‘The disciples, not a few 
but many, were those who had followed Him, expecting that 
He would, as the Messiah, set up His kingdom of power and 
glory. With their carnal expectations they called them- 
selves “‘his disciples’? and followed in mass. ‘They were of 
the same stamp as those mentioned in the closing verses of 
the second chapter. They are those who tried to take Him 
by force and make Him King (verse 15). Judas, with his 
covetous heart, followed with carnal expectations, but when 


136 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


it became evident that the Lord would not be King then, to 
satisfy his lust, he betrayed Him. 

They said ‘“This is a hard saying.” Hard, they meant, 
because it shattered their hopes; hard because it was repel- 
lent. ‘They did not believe what He said as to the need of 
receiving eternal life; they were stumbled by His declaration 
that this life can only be received and nourished by eating 
and drinking of Him. Instead of bowing to His teaching, 
and they had followed Him as a teacher, they refused to 
accept it. It was so contrary to their natural opinions and 
carnal hope. And our Lord, the omniscient One, knew in 
Himself all about their thoughts and murmurings. He did 
not need to listen to their excited utterances amongst 
themselves for ‘““He knew what was in man.” 

If they were offended at His teaching, what would they 
say, if finally they should see the Son of Man ascending into 
heaven, where He was before He came to earth? This is an 
important statement which we must not lightly pass over. 
They had murmured when He declared that He came down 
from heaven. Then they had murmured when He spoke 
about eating His flesh. And now He speaks of the same 
body which He had taken on in incarnation as Son of Man, 
the same body which He would give for the life of the world 
on the cross. And in this body, as Son of Man, He would in 
time ascend into heaven. This anticipates both His physi- 
cal resurrection, and His bodily ascension into glory. It 
answers the deniers of a physical resurrection and a physical 
ascension of our Lord. The body the Son of God took on 
in incarnation, that prepared body, called into existence by 
a creative act of the Holy Spirit, the body which hung on 
the cross, which died and was buried—that same body is 
now at the right hand of God. He is there as the glorified 
Son of Man, and in that body He will some day return to 
earth. Nor must we overlook the strong testimony our 
Lord bears once more as to His Deity. He declares that 
the place where He goes after His passion is the place where 
He was before. No Unitarian, Russellite nor others can 
explain this word of our Lord, for it is His unanswerable 
testimony as to His pre-existence. 

When next our Lord says “it is the Spirit that quicken- 


> 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 137 


eth” He means the Holy Spirit. Inasmuch as His words 
are spiritual, the Spirit of God uses them to quicken the 
spiritually dead and thus He gives life. The flesh profiteth 
nothing. Much has been written on these statements of our 
Lord which is incorrect. That He means the Holy Spirit, and 
His work in imparting the eternal life to the believer, is in full 
harmony with the rest of the teachings of our Lord in this 
Gospel. Eternal Life and the Holy Spirit cannot be separated. 

And while He spoke He read every heart. He knew that 
some believed not; as He looked upon the twelve, He knew 
that Judas would soon betray Him. But their unbelief, 
rejecting Him and His words, was but a confirmation of the 
words He had spoken before unto them, that ‘‘no man can 
come unto Me, except it were given unto him of my Father.” 
And this was more than a confirmation, it was His comfort 
and His joy, as they turned away from Him, and no longer 
followed Him, that all whom the Father had given to Him 
would come to Him and be His own. 

Verses 67-71. ‘They are all gone. What a scene it must 
have been, as they left with murmuring lips that synagogue 
in Capernaum, and then formed, probably, their groups to 
continue their heated discussion outside. He is alone with 
the twelve. What loving look He must have given them as 
He asked “Will ye also go away?” He knew, of course, what 
they would do; for His own information He needed not to 
ask the question. But His loving heart yearned even then 
for an expression of their trust in Him. And Peter an- 
swered for the rest. His impulsive nature, so sympathetic 
and aggressive, bursts forth in the blessed question, which 
thousands upon thousands of the Saints of God have re- 
peated—“*To whom shall we go?” He expressed thus in 
deepest feeling his conviction that if they left Him too, there 
would not be another One like Him to go to. To know 
Him, to believe on Him, to trust Him, to follow Him, to 
walk in His fellowship is the most blessed experience of 
human life. And if Christ were given up to whom can 
the hungry soul of man go to find its need supplied? ‘There 
are many who offer something apart from Christ. But 
“there is none but Christ that satisfies.”” ‘There is nothing 
in the wide world which satisfies, but Christ only. 


138 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Once more we quote Dr. Lyman Abbott’s words. He says 
in his comment on Peter’s question—““To go away from 
Christ is to go out even here into the darkness; unto lone- 
liness, hopelessness, despair.”» How unspeakably sad it is! 
The man who wrote these words which ring true has gone 
away from Christ and “gone out even here into the dark- 
ness,” for in the closing pages of his autobiography he bears 
witness to this fact. 

Peter’s confession which follows his question is twofold. 
First a confession that He has words of eternal life, and then 
the confession of His person, ““Thou art the Christ, the Son 
of the living God.” No other lips had ever spoken of 
eternal life as the lips of the.Lord Jesus Christ did. Peter, 
believing on Him, had believed His words and he knew 
that eternal life, of which the Lord had spoken. Then fol- 
lows the noble confession of his faith in Him as the Messiah, 
the Son of the living God. But while Peter was the spokes- 
man for the twelve, the Lord knew that in the little com- 
pany there was one who was a devil. He spoke of Judas 
Iscariot. He had chosen him, as He had chosen the others. 
But this does not mean “unto salvation.’ Some have 
argued that the betrayer of our Lord was also a gift of the 
Father to the Son, and that the Lord Jesus chose him for 
salvation. ‘Those who give this view argue “‘that Christ’s 
selecting, and the Father’s giving and drawing, do not 
exclude final falling away.” Ii this were true there would 
be an irreconcilable clash between the Lord’s actions and 
His words, for later He teaches that His sheep, those given 
to Him by the Father, shall in no wise perish. 

The choosing of Judas means that the Lord had chosen 
him for the office of an apostle. He had selected him for 
that office, knowing at the same time that this man would 
do the work which the prophetic Word in the Old Testa- 
ment had foreseen and announced. Judas never was a true 
disciple; he had never believed on Jesus as Peter believed, 
“‘the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Lord called 
him “a devil,’ for he was an unsaved man, and as such 
linked with the author of sin and death. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 139 


CHAPTER VII 


Verses 1-9. It must be remembered that the ministry of 
our Lord as reported by John is confined to Jerusalem and 
Judea, with the exception of the first, second, fourth and 
sixth chapters. After the events recorded in the previous 
chapter the Lord left Judea and for months labored in Galilee. 
The omniscient One knew all the plottings of the leaders of 
the Jews, how they hated Him, and were in council to do 
away with Him. Not alone did He know all this, but He 
also knew the exact time, when and under what circum- 
stances, His passion should begin. ‘The time was not yet and 
therefore He withdrew from Judea. The Passover feast, 
which comes in the spring, was past; the feast of Pentecost, 
the feast of weeks, which comes after Passover, is not men- 
tioned here. He did not go to Jerusalem for that feast. It 
is a significant fact that the feast of Pentecost is nowhere 
mentioned in the Gospels. That feast is mentioned only in 
the Book of Acts, and once in the First Epistle to the Corin- 
thians, when Paul wrote of being in Ephesus at Pentecost. 

The law commanded that every male Jew should attend 
every year the three great feasts in Jerusalem, Passover, 
Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles. Our Lord accord- 
ing to the Gospel records went to Jerusalem for Passover 
and for the feast of Tabernacles, but not once is it said that 
He attended the feast of Pentecost. These feasts have a 
great typical and prophetic meaning. ‘The Passover stands 
for the Cross, and the blessed work the Lamb of God fin- 
ished there; Pentecost is typical of the coming of the Holy 
Spirit for this dispensation, for the outgathering of the 
Church, and the feast of Tabernacles proclaims the blessed 
and glorious consummation when Christ comes again to 
bless His people and set up His Kingdom. 

The summer months were then spent by our Lord in 
Galilee; He was absent from Jerusalem, but came back when 
the feast of Tabernacles was about to be celebrated. It 
foreshadows the character of the present dispensation which 
began with Pentecost. During this dispensation the Lord 


140 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


is not here in person, but when this age closes He is coming 
again to reveal Himself, to manifest His glory in Jerusalem, 
and then the feast of Tabernacles will have its blessed ful- 
fillment. The Lord therefore never appeared in Jerusalem 
during the feast of Pentecost. 

His brethren in Galilee urged Him to depart at once for 
Jerusalem and show Himself in public. Much has been 
written on the question of the brethren of our Lord. Some 
say that they were the offspring of Mary by Joseph after the 
birth of our Lord. In the early Church two opinions were 
held regarding the relationship of those who are termed “‘the 
Brethren of the Lord.” Some maintained that no blood 
relationship existed, that these brethren were the sons of 
Joseph by a former wife, before he espoused the Virgin, and 
that they are called His brethren only in the same way in 
which Joseph is called His father. On the other hand others 
maintained that they were the Lord’s brethren as truly as 
the Virgin Mary was the Lord’s mother, being her sons by 
her husband Joseph. During the end of the fourth century 
Jerome advanced another theory. In answer to one Hel- 
vidius, who had attacked the prevailing view of the superiority 
of a Virgin over a married person, and laid great stress 
on the fact that Mary had other children from her husband, 
Jerome declared that the Lord’s brethren were His cousins. 
We do not think that this question can be definitely settled; 
nor is it of any importance. They were blood relations of 
some kind. The text shows that they did not believe on 
Him. They questioned His Messiahship and urged Him, 
perhaps sarcastically, to come to the front and demonstrate 
before the gathered multitudes in Jerusalem that He is the 
promised King—Messiah. From the first chapter of Acts 
we learn that they were converted afterward, for they are 
among the waiting company in Jerusalem (Acts i:14). 

He answers them calmly. His time was not yet come. 
Their time was always. They had nothing to fear from the 
side of the Jews and the world would not hate them, for 
being unconverted, they were still of the world. It was 
otherwise with Him. He was not of the world and His 
testimony He bore about the world was that its works 
are evil, that is why He was hated. Well has it been said 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 141 


“the wickedness of human nature is painfully shown in this 
sentence, ‘The Lord Jesus was hated’—it is an utter de- 
lusion to suppose that there is an innate response to perfect 
moral purity, or an innate admiration of the true, the pure, 
the just, the kind, and the good in the heart of man. God 
gave 1900 years ago, a perfect pattern of purity, truth and 
love in the person of our Lord, and man’s response was 
‘hatred.? Nor has the human heart changed since. If 
our Lord were to come again in humiliation the world today 
would hate Him, as they hated Him then. If Christians 
live true Christian lives, walking even as He walked, testi- 
fying against evil, if their lives are a constant testimony 
against the world, then the hatred of the world will be their 
portion. Thus He prayed: “The world has hated them, 
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the 
world.’ How little of all this is known to Christians today! 
The great professing church seeks the favor and applause of 
the world and makes common cause with the world which 
lieth in the wicked one. Let a believer live in separation 
from the world and its ways and he will soon find out that he 
is hated by the world, including what has been called ‘the 
religious world.’ Erasmus used to say that Luther might 
have had an easy life, if he had not touched the Pope’s 
crown, and the monks’ bellies. 

“Let us note, that unpopularity among men is no proof 
that a Christian is wrong, either in faith or practice. The 
common notion of many, that it is a good sign of a person’s 
character to be well-spoken of by everybody, is a great error. 
When we see how our Lord was regarded by the wicked and 
worldly of His day, we may well conclude that it is a very 
poor compliment to be told that we are liked by everybody. 
There can surely be very little ‘witness’ about our lives if 
even the wicked like us. ‘Woe unto you when all men shall 
speak well of you’ (Luke vi:26). That sentence is too much 
forgotten.”’* 

He refused to accompany them. And while they jour- 
neyed towards Jerusalem He abode in Galilee, awaiting the 
time of His departure. 

Verses 10-13. His relations had gone, probably disap- 


*Notes on John. 


142 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


pointed at His refusal to join them. He did not want to 
attract attention, nor give an occasion to repeat what had 
been attempted before, ‘“‘to make Him King” (vi:15) and so 
He went not openly, joining a larger company, but as in 
secret. ‘The Jews, the rulers and the Pharisees, were on the 
lookout for Him, expecting that He would appear at the 
feast. They asked “Where is He? More literally trans- 
lated this question is ‘‘Where is that man?’ It implies 
contempt. Not alone did the Jewish leaders expect Him 
and look for Him, to vent their hatred upon Him, but the 
mass of people also expected Him and had Him in their 
thoughts. How could it be otherwise? The healing of the 
impotent man and the great message the Lord had delivered 
in connection with the miracle was still vivid in their minds. 
The miracle of the feeding of the multitudes was also known 
to them. Probably there were hundreds of those who had 
been fed in Jerusalem, as the requirement was that every Jew 
should participate in the great feast of Tabernacles. ‘They 
must have scattered the news of what had taken place in 
Galilee and what He had said as to Himself being the Bread 
of Life come down from heaven. The gathered masses were 
divided as to Himself. Some proclaimed Him to be a good 
man; but others, and they were most likely the larger class, 
denied that He was a good man, and branded Him as a 
deceiver. But there were no voices heard which spoke of 
Him as the Messiah, the King of Israel. Those who be- 
lieved in Him as a good man were afraid to declare them- 
selves for fear of the leaders. 

Verses 14-20. The feast of Tabernacles lasted for seven 
days and was, and still is (among orthodox Jews), an occasion 
of great rejoicing. Booths of tree branches were made, com- 
memorating the dwelling in booths when their fathers left 
Egypt. The law commanded great sacrifices (Numbers 
xx1x:12-34) to be brought throughout these seven days. 
It followed immediately after the feast of the blowing of the 
Trumpets (foreshadowing the future regathering of Israel) 
and the great Day of Atonement (typical of Israel’s spiritual 
restoration and the forgiveness of their sins), and, as already 
stated, the feast of Tabernacles is typical of our Lord’s 
Return and the blessed results of peace and joy which will 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 143 


follow that coming great event. When the feast was in full 
swing, in the middle of the week, He appeared in their midst. 
He went at once up into the Temple toteach. The portion 
of the Temple where teaching was permitted was the outer 
Court. Over twenty years before the boy Jesus was in 
the same outer Court, sitting in the midst of the teachers, 
hearing them and asking questions. We wonder if some of 
the older teachers and doctors of the law remembered that 
boy. 

It has not pleased the Holy Spirit to record what our 
Lord taught when He entered the Temple. But we know 
that it was wonderful, for the Jews marveled. Where did 
He receive all His knowledge? Did He ever attend a great 
school of learning? Did He sit at the feet of some great 
Gamaliel? Had He conformed to the demands of rabbinical 
custom, that anyone who appears as teacher must have 
been for a number of years the companion of a learned 
rabbi? And furthermore did He not come from Nazareth? 
Was He not brought up in that town of ill-repute on account 
of its uncultured and ignorant population? What good 
thing can come out of Nazareth? ‘‘How knoweth this man 
letters, having never learned?”’ 

He answered their question. What He taught He had 
not learned of others; nor was it something which He had 
brought forth out of His own mind. The Father had 
taught Him and therefore He spoke these things (Chapter 
viii:28). The doctrine He taught was not of Himself, but of 
another, even of Him that sent Him into the world, the 
Father with Whom He is one, and apart from Whom He 
does nothing. The great truth He uttered in the fifth 
chapter is here once more put before them. It is again 
mentioned by Him in the twelfth chapter: “I have not 
spoken of Myself, but the Father which sent Me; He gave 
Me commandment, what I should say, and what I should 
speak” (xii:49). All then which came from His blessed 
lips is the revelation of God. But He gives them a test. 
They also may know whether His doctrine is of God or that 
He speaks from Himself. If anyone is willing to do His 
will, that one shall find the truth. 

“They would know this, if they were but willing to do the 


144 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Father’s will, for the spirit of obedience clears out the earth- 
vapors that obscure the heavens; he who has not heart-felt 
desire for the truth will scarcely learn it. This is itself 
simple, if only we believe that God can certify the truth to 
His creatures, and that He cares enough for them to desire 
that they should have it. But, simple as it is, if we believe 
it, what does it reveal with regard to the condition, not of the 
world merely, but of the children of God today? The 
various and conflicting views of Christians as to almost 
every Christian truth, how are they to be accounted for, 
with the Bible open before us, and the Spirit of Truth to 
lead us into all truth? What heart searching should it not 
give us, to learn how far we are really willing to have the 
truth—the whole truth, at whatever cost.’’* 

He gives another test. The man who speaks from him- 
self always seeks his own glory; speaking from himself, he 
speaks for himself and tries to advance his own interests. 
This is the mark of all teachers of error, who speak not 
according to the truth of God and through the guidance of 
the Spirit of God, but from themselves. But the statement 
“He that seeketh the glory of Him that sent Him, He is 
true and no unrighteousness is in Him” can only be fully 
true in Him Whom the Father sent, our Lord. Yet every 
servant of God, who seeks the glory of God and not his own 
glory,will be kept from that which is untrue and unrighteous. 

But they rejected Him and the doctrine which the Father 
had given Him to proclaim, yet were they boasting of the law 
given by Moses. “Did not Moses give you the Law?” From 
Deuteronomy xxxi:10, we learn every seventh year the Law 
was to be read publicly during the feast of Tabernacles. It 
is quite possible that it was a seventh year feast which the 
Lord attended, and if this is the case the statement as to the 
Law has additional meaning. But with all their boasting 
in the law they did not keep, little did they know that the 
omniscient, holy Lawgiver stood in their presence. They 
were going about to kill Him and thus breaking that Law. 
Not the rulers and the Pharisees answered Him, but the 
people, those who did not believe on Him as a good man, 


*Numerical Bible. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 145 


but thought Him a deceiver. They were ignorant of the 
secret plottings of the religious leaders. Not knowing the 
truth they charged Him with having a demon. Thus they 
treated Him who is the Light and the Life. 

Verses 21-24. From these words spoken by our ominis- 
cient Lord it becomes apparent that the great miracle 
performed by Him at the pool of Bethesda was the real cause 
of their hatred. They had not forgotten the healing of the 
impotent man. They persecuted Him then and sought to 
slay Him because He healed the man on the Sabbath. They 
had nourished the same feeling against Him ever since. He 
reminds them of circumcision given by Moses, yet it was not 
appointed by Moses, for circumcision was prior to the law, 
given unto the fathers. The law commanded that the 
Sabbath should be kept holy and no work to be done in it; 
but the law also demanded that every male child should be 
circumcised on the eighth day. The eighth day many times 
fell on the Sabbath, and that the law of Moses might not be 
broken, the child was circumcised on the Sabbath. He 
showed them thereby that they did a certain work on the 
Sabbath, a religious ordinance made necessary by the com- 
mandment of God. But what is circumcision in comparison 
with the great work He had done, a work which glorifies 
God and made a man perfectly whole! Why should they be 
angry with Him because He had healed the man on the 
Sabbath? They had judged Him hastily; they condemned 
Him because they were blind ritualists, standing and defend- 
ing the letter of the law. Their lips were silenced. They 
could not give Him an answer. 

Verses 25-27. Jerusalem was crowded with people on 
account of the feast,and those who speak now were not 
visitors but natives of Jerusalem. Ina preceding verse the 
people said: “Who goeth about to kill thee?” (verse 21). 
These inhabitants of Jerusalem were better informed; they 
knew something of the hatred, and of the plans which were 
being made against Him. ‘‘Is not this He, whom they seek 
to kill?? They were astonished that He spoke openly in the 
way He did. None of the Elders or Priests said anything to 
Him. They did not open their mouths to denounce Him, 
nor did they lay hands on Him. They could not explain the 


146 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


inactiveness of their rulers, when they had such a good 
opportunity to arrest Him. Some even thought that their 
leaders had changed their minds about Him. ‘‘Have the 
rulers indeed acknowledged that this is Christ?’ 

Mockery and sneers followed. ‘They thought they knew 
where He came from. They knew Him by the name “Jesus 
of Nazareth.”’ These proud Jerusalem Jews said, “He is 
nothing but a Galilean, from that little town of Nazareth.” 
And later, when He rode into Jerusalem, the people said: 
“This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth.” Then it was 
written over His cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the 
Jews.” They knew this much, that the Messiah must come 
from Bethlehem. But this-man, they said, is a Nazarene, 
brought up as a carpenter in Nazareth. ‘They did not 
know of His virgin birth, nor that He was born in the city 
of David, Bethlehem. ‘They manifested their ignorance by 
their statement: “As to Christ, when He comes, no one 
knows whence He is.” Perhaps back of this strange ques- 
tion lie some of the foolish traditions and sayings of the 
Jews, which even then, at least in part, were circulating 
among the people. 

Verses 28-32. This is one of the few passages in the 
Gospels in which it is recorded that He cried, which means 
that He spoke with a loud voice. The Prophet Isaiah had 
announced, ‘‘He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any 
man hear His voice in the street” (Isa. xlii:2). This was 
His lovely and meek character, yet at times He spoke with 
a loud voice. Once more in this chapter He cried (verse37); 
also in chapter xii:44. Then He cried with a loud voice on 
the cross (Matt. xxvii:46) and also when He yielded up 
His spirit. 

“Ye both know Me and ye know whence am.”’ This was 
His utterance. He acknowledged they were right in say- 
ing that they knew Him, yet they knew Him not in the real 
sense of the word. ‘They knew He was from Nazareth; they 
knew about His relatives, those called “‘his brethren’; they 
knew that He had lived for thirty years and over in Nazareth; 
yet of His miraculous birth, of His Deity they knew nothing 
whatever. ‘That is what He affirms: “But He that sent 
Me is true, whom ye know not. But I know Him be- 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 147 


cause I am from Him, and He hath sent Me.” Brief, yet 
weighty words these are. Once more the Lord bears witness 
as to His Deity and Oneness with the Father. He is the sent 
One of God; He is from Him; He knows Him. He was 
always with Him, one with Him, equal with Him. They 
understood at once what He meant. His former words 
when He had healed the impotent man must have been 
remembered by some: “My Father worketh hitherto, and 
I work” (verse 17). They were then ready to kill Him. 
And here He had made statements of the same character. 
Their antagonism was raised to the highest pitch, and they 
sought to take Him, but they were divinely restrained from 
laying hands on Him. No hand could touch Him, for His 
hour had not yet come. That hour when He was to be de- 
livered into the hands of men, to be crucified and to finish 
the work He came to do, was scheduled from all eternity. 
The exact hour was known and appointed before the foun- 
dation of the world.* When His enemies finally laid hold 
on Him, it was because His hour had come. 

Another effect of the words of our Lord was that many 
believed on Him. They probably believed in the same way 
as those mentioned at the close of the second chapter. They 
may have been Galileans, for they said: ‘““When Christ 
cometh, will He do more signs than these which this man 
has done?” But few signs and miracles had been done by 
Him in Jerusalem, but His great signs had been wrought in 
Galilee. They seemed to be convinced that He was the 
Messiah, but we hear nothing of them that confessed Him as 
Lord and as Christ, nor did they follow Him. The Pharisees 
soon discovered that He whom they hated was the most 
talked of person at the feast. Everybody spoke of Him, 
and when they found that many voices were heard that He 
must be the Messiah, they thought the time for action had 
come. ‘They therefore commissioned officers to arrest Him. 





*In a certain Bible Study Magazine we saw recently the statement 
that our Lord died ‘‘a premature death.” We suppose the author of the 
article from which we quote this, which also contains other dishonor- 
ing statements about our Lord, means that He might have lived longer. 
It is foolish for any one to write such inventions. Think of Christ 
dying a premature death, when a certain hour for His death on the 
Cross was known in all eternity! 


148 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Verses 33-36. Surrounded by the multitudes, with the 
officers of the Pharisees approaching to carry out the com- 
mand of the chiefs of the people, the Lord addresses them. 
The officers were not only powerless to do what they had 
been told, but they were forced to listen to His words. Later 
we find what they said to their superiors about what they 
had heard from His lips. 

They had come to lay hold on Him. His words tell them 
that it could not be done, for yet a little while He was to be 
with them, and when that little while is gone He would go 
back to the Father who sent Him. He speaks in full assur- 
ance, in perfect knowledge of what would take place. He 
would accomplish the great work and then go back to Him, 
the Father. And after He is gone, He said, ‘‘Ye shall seek 
Me and not find Me.” ‘This is a prophetic utterance of our 
Lord; it goes beyond the people who listened to Him at 
that time. It concerns the nation itself, that after He had 
gone back to the Father, they would look in vain for the 
promised Messiah. They would then seek Him and not 
find Him. Still more solemn is the next sentence, “‘Where 
I am ye cannot come.” Let us notice that our Lord does 
not say, “Where I am going ye cannot come,” but “‘Where 
I am.’ The place He speaks of is heaven; this is the place 
which is His, and even while He was on earth in creature’s 
form in His Deity He was in heaven, and did not cease from 
being there when He walked on earth (see John iii:13). 
Well may we confess, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for 
me.” And those who reject Him, who do not believe on 
Him, can NEVER be in the place where He is. This one 
sentence answers all the unscriptural inventions of a second 
chance for those who rejected Christ and died unsaved, it 
is a complete refutation of the “‘larger hope” and the cun- 
ningly devised fables of ‘“‘reconciliationism,” the misappli- 
cation of the Scriptural term “the restitution of all things.” 
It is an utter impossibility that those who die in their sins 
and in unbelief can ever reach the place where He is. Men 
may please themselves with thinking it is kind and loving 
and liberal and large hearted to believe and to teach that 
all men and women of all sorts will finally be found in heaven. 
One word of our Lord Jesus Christ’s overturns the whole 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 149 


theory: Heaven is a place, He says to the wicked, where 
“ve cannot come.” 

They understood not what He said. They imagined that 
He thought of going to those Jews who were dispersed among 
the Greeks and then also teach the Gentiles. They surmised 
something which came true after His death, resurrection 
and ascension. The Holy Spirit came down from heaven, 
and the witness was first given in Jerusalem. Once more 
the kingdom promise is preached. ‘They rejected the mes- 
sage, and then theGospel was sent far hence unto the Gentiles. 

Verses 37-39. The feast of Tabernacles terminated with 
the eighth day. It was on this last day, that the voice of our 
Lord was heard uttering this most blessed invitation and 
promise. For seven days water had been drawn from the 
brook Siloam and poured out, under the rejoicing of the 
people assembled to keep the feast. It was a memorial of the 
miracle in their history, when the Lord, during their wilder- 
ness experience, supplied water out of the cleft of the rock. 
But more than that, for the well informed Israelite, who 
believed the promises of God made to the nation, it was 
prophetic. Zechariah’s final vision tells of the time “‘when 
living waters shall go out from Jerusalem” (Zech. xiv:8). 
Ezekiel, too, had beheld the waters like a mighty river flowing 
forth from the great temple. And in the distant past 
Balaam, likewise, had spoken a similar prophecy (Num. 
xxiv:7). All these prophecies will be fulfilled in the day the 
King comes back to be in the midst of His people. The 
last great day of the feast was called “the Hosanna Rabba,”’ 
when the air was fairly rent with the Hosannas of the mul- 
titudes. But on the eighth day the ceremony of pouring 
out water ceased. It was symbolical of the fact that after 
the wilderness wanderings were over they entered the 
promised land, where the springs of water supplied all their 
need to the full. 

And here their own King-Messiah is with them. He 
through whom all these promises can only be fulfilled, He 
who is the rock which followed them (1 Cor. x:4) is in their 
midst. He is the rejected One. ‘The hour nears when He 
will be cast out and delivered into the hands of the Gen- 
tiles to be lifted up on the cross. All that the feast of 


150 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Tabernacles signifies prophetically cannot be now; it can- 
not be fulfilled, “rivers of living water’ flowing forth from 
Jerusalem. In this last day, when the feast was about 
ended, He stood and uttered these wonderful words: “If 
any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink’’; and then 
the promise, “He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture 
hath said, from his belly shall flow forth rivers of living 
water.” While the national promise is impossible, on 
account of His rejection, He offers something new, giving 
an individual invitation, and an individual promise. He 
is the fountain of living water and He invites the thirsting 
one to come to Him and drink. Then having come to Him 
to drink, believing on Hint, He gives the great promise, 
from that one, should flow forth rivers of living water. We 
are told in the next verse that this means the gift of the 
Holy Ghost, which all those receive who believe on Him. 
Yet this gift was conditioned on the death of Christ and 
the resurrection and ascension of Christ; the words ‘“‘for 
Jesus was not yet glorified” include all these great events 
in the redemption work of our Lord. 

The promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Christ 
was glorified and the Glorifier of Christ, the Holy Spirit 
came down from heaven to earth. He came to dwell in and 
to fill those who have come to Christ and believed on Him. 
And so it was on that memorable day when the promised 
gift was given. Ever since, whosoever believes on Him 
shares in that gift and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And 
that Spirit is to manifest Himself through the believer as 
streams of living water, flowing forth from Him. It does 
not mean that there is to be a supernatural manifestation 
of the presence of the Holy Spirit in some startling sign— 
gifts, such as the “gift of Tongues,” the lowest of all the 
gifts, but that the believer is to be the source from which 
blessings flow forth to others by bearing witness to Christ.* 

Noteworthy is Martin Luther’s vigorous and simple 
paraphrase on these words of our Lord. “He that cometh 

*“The possession of the gifts of the Spirit, it is evident, in the early 
church is quite compatible with an ungodly heart. A man ora woman 
might speak with tongues, and yet be like salt that has lost its savour. 


The possession of the fullness of the graces of the Spirit, on the contrary, 
was that which made any man a blessing in the world.” 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 151 


to Me shall be so furnished with the Holy Spirit, that he 
shall not only be quickened and refreshed himself and de- 
livered from thirst, but he shall also be a strong stone vessel, 
from which the Holy Spirit with all blessing shall flow to 
others, refreshing, comforting and strengthening them, even 
as he was refreshed by Me. Peter on the day of Pentecost, 
by one sermon, as by a rush of water, delivered three thou- 
sand from the devil’s kingdom.” An old comment says: 
“When a man turns to the Lord, he is like a fountain filled 
with living water, and rivers flow from him to men of all 
nations and tribes.”’ Even so it is. God’s people are not 
called to be stagnant pools, or reservoirs which only receive 
and never give forth, but our calling is to be rivers, which 
constantly give because they have in themselves the foun- 
tain of living water. 

“But where else shall we find so wonderful a picture of 
what the man indwelt of the Spirit is in the world, as wit- 
ness of the glory of His rejected Lord? As we have to say 
of kindred utterances in this Gospel, it seems too highly 
drawn for a picture of any save the rare exceptions among 
Christian men. But let us accept the reproof of this, and 
try rather to realize what a man indwelt of the Spirit would 
be normally as that. The Spirit of God—God dwelling 
within one—the Living Center of the practical life; the 
Enlightener of mind and conscience; the Energy of the 
affection and the will: all power, all wisdom in Him who 
as Vice-regent of Christ has come to hold me for Christ 
against all that in a world opposed to Him would hinder 
my witness!—what competency, what fulness at all times 
accessible to me does all this imply! 

“A perpetual spring in a vessel must needs overflow the 
vessel in which it is, the smallness of which is no limit to 
the spring itself. When once the vessel is full, all the power 
of the spring will manifest itself in the overflow. Hence, 
(if we think of the spring and not of the vessel), ‘rivers of liv- 
ing water’ are not too much to predicate of the outflow 
from this divine Source of blessing within the soul, which, 
first filling to complete satisfaction the soul itself, must 
surely then flow out for the need of others. 

“This is the Lord’s own witness to the gift He gives, who 


152 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


cannot err in the estimate He makes of it. When we realize 
what it is, we cannot think it to be too high. Our experi- 
mental knowledge will depend indeed upon our practical 
subjection to the Spirit indwelling us; but how blessed te 
know that this is to be gained in so simple a way, and that 
this is the picture the Lord can give us of the normal 
Christian.’’* 

Verses 40-44. Evidently the attention was arrested. To 
see this One standing up, and telling out such a message, 
must have astonished the multitude. We doubt not there 
were thirsty souls there, sin-laden souls, souls to whom these 
words went home. They thought that He must be the 
Prophet, the one whom Moses had announced would come 
some day (Deut. xviii:15-18). But there were others and 
they seemed to be convinced that “this is the Christ”; they 
saw in Him, as He really was, the promised Messiah, the 
King, the Son of David. They were probably saying this one 
to another, so that others heard of it. ‘Therefore some made 
objection. They knew Messiah could not come out of 
Galilee; they thought our Lord was nothing but a Galilean, 
and therefore He could not be the Messiah. They knew 
that Messiah must be a Son of David and come from the 
city of David, Bethlehem; and they knew not that He was 
the Son of David from Bethlehem. The result was a divi- 
sion among the people. Some said He is the Prophet, some 
He is Christ, others objected and still others hated and de- 
spised Him. And so it is still, there is ‘‘a division among the 
people on account of Him.” Some day the burning question, 
“What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?”’ will be for- 
ever settled for Jew and Gentile, and that will be the day 
of His coming Glory. 

Verses 45-53. These officers had been sent several days 
before (verse 32) to arrest our Lord. They probably 
watched Him very closely and looked for a convenient time to 
carry out their commission. They could not do so, because 
His hour was not yetcome. Here they return empty handed 
and when asked why they did not bring Him a prisoner, their 
defense is, “Never spake man like this man.” It was not 
cowardice on their part, that, fearing the great mass of 


*Numerical Bible. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 153 


people, they refrained from touching His person. The power 
and beauty of the words of the Son of God restrained them 
completely from taking action. They listened to Him and 
then forgot all about the orders they had received. Often 
has this been repeated in the lives of evangelists and mission- 
aries who preached faithfully the Word of God and did not 
know that wicked men were plotting to do them harm; the 
Word preached touched their consciences, and they were 
unable to carry out their threats. 

“Are ye also deceived?” said the Pharisees to them. 
“Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on Him?” 
“Who are ye, hirelings of the Sanhedrim that you should be 
captivated by His words? We, the rulers and the Pharisees, 
we, the learned doctors of law, men of authority, are the 
judges. This miserable mob which shouts out that He must 
be the Prophet, and others saying He must be Christ, know 
not the law; they are cursed.” Perhaps they meant with this 
that they had sympathy with Him, whom they considered 
a law-breaker, because He had healed on the Sabbath, and 
therefore, the multitude also not knowing the law, were 
cursed. Everything shows that the Pharisees were beside 
themselves, filled with rage, with envy, hatred and malice 
against the Lord. 

But suddenly one of their own number speaks; it is 
Nicodemus. The Holy Spirit adds, so that there might be 
no question as to who this Nicodemus is, “he that came to 
Jesus by night.” As we know from the third chapter, 
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a ruler and the teacher in Israel. 
That he speaks now in the presence of his associates, mem- 
bers of the Sanhedrim, shows that the blessed words our 
Lord had spoken to this man in that memorable night had 
not been spoken in vain; they had touched his heart. He 
ventures, though weakly, to defend the Lord. “Doth our 
law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he 
doeth?” He appealed to the law (Deut. i:17, xvii:8, xix:15). 
They knew the law well, and also the instructions by the 
elders which required that every accused person should 
have a hearing, with an opportunity to confront the wit- 
nesses against him and to cross-examine them. They felt 
the rebuke and could not answer; instead they sneered at 


154 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


their colleague, “Art thou also of Galilee?’ which meant, 
are you also ignorant, thou, our great teacher, the honored 
and respected Nicodemus? ‘Then sarcastically, “Search and 
look, out of Galilee hath arisen no prophet.” Their fury 
and malicious bitterness had blinded them completely. 
They quite forgot that Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Jonah and 
probably Nahum were Galilean prophets. Then they 
dispersed. 


CHAPTER VIII 


Verses 1-11. This passage has been rejected by some as 
an interpolation. The chief arguments against it are the 
following: It is not found in some of the oldest manuscripts 
and earlier translations; that some of the Greek fathers never 
refer to it; that it differs in style from the rest of this Gospel; 
that the incident would foster immorality.. All these argu- 
ments have been proven invalid. Some of the most reliable 
manuscripts contain this paragraph, and in others it was 
omitted on purpose, because the grace, which shines forth so 
marvelously in the Lord’s dealing with this woman, was 
unpalatable to those teachers who leaned towards legality. 
It seems the fear that it might lead to license seems to have 
influenced a good many in the early Church to discountenance 
this blessed story. Augustinus in one of his works refers to 
this. In speaking of the case of a wife who has committed 
adultery, he says, how well it becomes a Christian husband to 
be reconciled to her, upon her repentance, because our Lord 
said, ‘Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” 
This, however, rather shocks the minds of some weak be- 
lievers, or rather unbelievers and enemies of the Christian 
faith, insomuch that, afraid of its giving their wives im- 
punity in sinning, they struck out of their copies of the 
Gospel this that our Lord did in pardoning the woman taken 
in adultery; as if He granted leave of sinning, when He said, 
*“Go, and sin no more.” 

It is evident from the text that this story belongs here and 
must be genuine. If we leave it out the text would make no 
sense, for in verse 53 of the previous chapter we read: “Every 
man went to his own house.” If we leave out the first eleven 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 155 


verses of this chapter, the next verse, verse 12, ““Then spake 
Jesus again unto them,” makes no connection whatever. 
But from the beginning of chapter vili we learn that our 
Lord, having spent the night on Olivet, returned early to the 
temple and was surrounded at once by the people who still 
lingered in Jerusalem after the feast of Tabernacles. Then 
He sat down and resumed His teaching. But before He 
could do so His enemies were once more active. In the pre- 
vious chapter they had failed to take Him by force. The 
officers had returned without Him, for His hour had not 
yet come. Their attempt is now to ensnare Him so as to 
find occasion to accuse Him of some inconsistency. 

The woman who had just been apprehended in adultery 
is brought into His presence. They form a circle about 
Him and put the woman alongside of the Lord, thus putting 
the Holy One of Israel alongside of one of His sinful, lost 
creatures, for whom He had come to die. We do not know 
who this woman was, as her name and history are not given. 
They state the case against her. She was taken in adultery. 
The Law of Moses demanded that she suffer the death 
penalty by stoning (Lev. xx:10, Deuteronomy xxii:22). 
They demand “‘What therefore sayest thou?” ‘There is no 
difficulty in finding out why they put this question to Him. 
In their cunning they thought He must answer that the law 
of Moses must be upheld and the sentence executed. If he 
had answered thus they would have gone at once to the 
Roman authorities and accused Him as some kind of a rebel 
against the orders of the Government, for it was not lawful 
for the Jews to put anyone to death (xviii:31). If He 
would answer negatively, that the woman should not be 
stoned, they would have made coin out of this, and quickly 
passed the word that He was a lawbreaker, one who upheld 
unrighteousness and sin. 

And while they plotted and concocted this scheme to harm 
Him, He knew their thoughts. Nothing was hid from His 
omniscient eye. While they waited for a reply, He stooped 
down and wrote with His finger on the ground. It is the only 
passage in the Gospels which tells us that our Lord wrote. 
What did He trace on the ground? No one knows, for there 
is nothing said about it by John. But let us remember the 


156 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


same finger which wrote in the dust is the finger which 
wrote the law—He is the lawgiver; that law pronounces 
death, it is written in the dust, the dust of death. Not 
a word came from His lips. But the questioners were per- 
sistent and determined to get an answer. ‘““Then He lifted 
up Himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among 
you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again He stooped 
down and wrote on the ground.” His perfect wisdom is once 
more revealed. He was not the one to sit in judgment and 
pronounce the sentence. The witnesses according to the 
law were to be the executioners of the sentence of the law. 
They had come bringing the charge. Were they guiltless, 
or had they also broken the commandment, ““Thou shalt not 
commit adultery’? If there was one in that company who 
had not sinned in this line, he might come to the front and 
cast the first stone at the woman. They all sneaked out. 
The eldest left first; they were convicted by their own con- 
science. If they were guilty of the same sin which the 
woman had committed, then they were under the same 
sentence of death for the same sin. He who spoke to them 
knew their lives and sin. What a testimony this is to the 
moral condition of the Jewish people in the days of our Lord! 
These Scribes and Pharisees with their high profession and 
pretensions were guilty of grossest sin. 

They had all gone away. The accusers were gone, the 
accused woman remained face to face with Him, who knew 
no sin, in whose mouth no guile was found. ‘‘Woman, where 
are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? 
She said, No man, Lord.’”? How delicately and graciously 
He treated the poor woman! He might have asked her about 
her sin and guilt. He might have rebuked her. But 
none of all this came from His blessed lips. He did not need 
to ask her about her guilt. He knew her life’s history, as 
He knows ours. And the woman addressed Him as “Lord,” 
which is evidence that she believed in Him. She expressed 
her faith in Him, uttering this one word ‘‘Lord,” the word 
a disciple of our Lord, Judas Iscariot never used. And 
because she believed in Him as Lord, He said, ‘‘Neither do 
I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” He revealed His 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 157 


grace unto her, but that grace demands holiness. Forgive- 
ness must be followed by the new life. 

Verses 12-20. The incident of the woman brought before 
the Lord was an interruption. He had returned in the 
early morning to the temple to teach. Probably the sun was 
just beginning to shine, when looking towards the sunrise He 
made this great statement, ‘‘I am the light of the world.” 
It is another great self-witness. He is the light, already so 
blessedly announced in the first chapter of the Gospel. 
This means He is the light and gives light; apart from Him all 
is darkness, but in His light we see the light. He is the light 
of the world, it is to reach the Gentiles. This is especially 
revealed in Isaiah (Chapter xlix). After the complaint of 
Messiah, prophetically stated, and as relating to Israel, “I 
have laboured in vain’’—the rejected One is announced as the 
light for the Gentiles—‘‘I will also give thee for a light to 
the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends 
of the earth” (Isaiah xlix:1-6). And he that followeth 
Him, He assures us, shall not walk in darkness but shall have 
the light of life. Following necessitates believing on Him, for 
none can follow Him as the light, unless there is faith in Him. 
“‘What the teacher is to the scholar, the master to the 
servant, the guide to the traveler, the general to the soldier, 
the shepherd to the sheep, that is Christ to the believer who 
follows Him.” 

Following Him is walking in the light and not in darkness. 
Man on account of sin is in moral and spiritual darkness. 
Believing on Christ and following Him delivers from both. 
In his fellowship the believer is delivered from the power of 
darkness, from the power of sin and from ignorance as to 
spiritual things. No prophet ever made such an assertion 
as this, and only He could make it because He is Lord and 
God, the Life and the Light. 

Then the Pharisees answered Him, ‘“Thou bearest record 
of Thyself; thy record is not true.”” Because He spoke thus 
of Himself, they branded His self-witness as untrustworthy. 
Their objection was another evidence of the darkened mind 
of the natural man, as well as the hatred of their hearts. 
The Lord answers at once, that though He bore record of 
Himself, yet His testimony concerning Himself is true. How 


158 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


abundantly this has been confirmed in the experiences of 
believing sinners in every generation, men and women 
uncountable, who believed on Him, followed Him, and 
rejoiced in the light of life, walking in the light as He is in the 
light. But He added “‘for I know whence I came, and whither 
I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come and whither I go.” 
He knew who He was, the Son of God, the Lord of glory. 
He knew the great work He came to do in redemption, and 
He knew that He would return to the glory from which He 
came. Of this they were ignorant, or else they would not 
have charged Him with bearing an untrustworthy testimony, 
but would have worshipped at His feet. They judged only 
after the outward appearance, but He did not judge man in 
this manner. He did not come to judge the world, yet the 
day will come when He will execute the judgments com- 
mitted into His hands by the Father. When that judgment 
time comes, His judgment will be true; for in it He is not 
alone—‘“‘For I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent 
Me.” Here once more the great testimony of John’s Gospel, 
the inseparable union of the Father and the Son, is in 
evidence. 

In the law it is written “that the testimony of two 
men is true’ (Deuteronomy xvii:6; xix:15). There were 
two witnesses as to Himself and His mission; He bore 
witness of Himself and the Father also witnessed concerning 
Him, for He had sent Him. Then His enemies wanted to 
know about His Father, ‘‘Where is Thy Father?’ In asking 
this question they showed contempt, as if saying, ‘“‘Where 
then is this father of yours? Why does he not show himself 
and tell us all about you?” 

Then the Lord answered and said, ‘‘Ye neither know Me, 
nor My Father; if ye had known Me, ye should have known 
my Father also.”? These are weighty words again. Notonly 
do they show once more the unity of the Son with the Father, 
but they teach us that knowledge of the Father is only 
possible through the Son. Not knowing Christ means not 
knowing the Father. But knowing Christ, believing on Him, 
following Him, gives the knowledge of the Father, and as 
believers know Christ better, they learn to know the Father 
more and more. ‘‘Whosoever denieth the Son, the same has 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 159 


not the Father” (1 John 11:23). ‘Whosoever shall confess 
that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he 
in God” (John iv:15). “He that hath the Son hath life, 
‘and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 
212); 

All this took place in the temple, in that portion called 
the treasury. Boldly He had declared His Messiahship and 
His Oneness with God. But no one laid hands on Him, not 
for fear of the multitudes, many of whom sided with Him, 
but because His hour was not yet come.* 

Verses 21-27. These words were spoken by the Lord 
probably some time later on the same day, but not in the 
same place, “in the treasury of the temple” (verse 20). In 
the beginning of this new discourse He tells them that He is 
going Hisway. Whatwayisthis? Itis the way marked out 
in the eternal purposes of God. That way led Him from the 
throne of glory down into the world to die for sinners, and 
after that the way led Him back to the Father. “I go my 
way’; blessed expression! He came that way for us, and 
those who believe on Him, for whom He died, follow Him in 
that way to the Father’s house. Then they would seek Him. 
This evidently means that they would look for the Messiah, 
but, having rejected Him, there is no other to seek. As the 
result of His rejection, they would die in their sins, “‘whither 
I go, ye cannot come.” ‘This is a most solemn utterance of 
our Lord. Those who do not believe on Him die in their 
sins and, dying unsaved, there is no possibility of ever being 
in heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ has gone. No 
matter what theories have been invented to hold out a hope 
for the unsaved after death, they all wither into nothing- 
ness before this word of our Lord. But they were unable 
to understand His words. Perhaps their own murderous 

*The expression should be carefully noticed, and remembered by 
all true Christians. It teaches that the wicked can do no harm to 
Christ and His members until God gives them permission. Not a 
hair of a believer’s head can be touched until God in His sovereign 
wisdom allows it. It teaches that all times are in God’s hand. There 
is an allotted ‘hour’ both for doing and for suffering. ‘Till the hour 
comes for dying no Christian will die. When the hour comes nothing 
can prevent his death. These are comfortable truths, and deserve 
attention. Christ’s members are safe and immortal till their work is 


done. When they suffer, it is because God wills it and sees it good.” 
—‘Thoughts on John.” 


160 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


thoughts suggested the idea that He meant to take His own 
life, “Will He kill Himself? It shows how dreadful is the 
darkness of the natural man. 

Then He gives a double contrast. “Ye are from beneath; 
I am from above. Ye are of this world; I am not of this 
world.”’ And this is not only true of the Jews who listened 
to His words, it is true of every human being. By nature 
we are all from beneath, we are all of this world, and because 
we are from beneath and of this world, we are lost sinners. 
But how precious to know that through grace, through His 
own blessed work of sinbearing, the sinner who believes on 
Him is born from above. The ‘‘from beneath” is changed 
to “from above.” ‘The.newborn believer then is no longer 
of this world. He expressed this marvelous truth in His 
own great prayer (chapter xvii) when praying for His own, 
for all who believe, “they are not of the world, even as I 
am not of the world.” 

Then He takes up the previous thought of “dying in 
your sins.” What does it mean? Did He mean their 
individual sins only. It means that the great sin on account 
of which they die in their sins is unbelief. ‘“‘For if ye believe 
not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.”’ This is still the 
Truth. No matter how great a sinner a man or woman may 
be, there is salvation at the door of each by believing on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, believing that He is the Son of God and 
died for the ungodly. No matter how morally a man and a 
woman may live, how much good they may do, if they reject 
the Lord Jesus Christ, if they refuse to believe on Him, it is 
true of all, as it was true of those Jews in the days of our Lord, 
“if ye believe not that I am He (the Lord) ye shall die in your 
Sissy, 

This only incensed them more. Who art Thou? they asked 
Him, perhaps sarcastically, certainly not honestly. May- 
be they tried toensnare Him. His brief answer suggests this 
thought, “Even the same that I said unto you from the be- 
ginning.” 

Once more He bears witness of His oneness with Him who 
sent Him, His Father. Many other things He might have 
spoken and many other judgments He might have uttered 
concerning them; He did not do so, for He spoke just those 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 161 


things which accorded with what He had heard of Him, who 
sent Him. But so dense were their minds and unbelieving 
hearts that they understood not that He spoke to them of the 
Father. 

Verses 28-33. In the next place He speaks of His com- 
ing death. The words are a prophecy. He predicts once 
more His death by crucifixion and that they would do it, 
“When ye have lifted up the Son of Man.” But what does 
it mean when He tells them that then they would know “that 
I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself’? Does it mean 
that some of them would then believe on Him and acknow- 
ledge Him as the Messiah, the Son of God? Or does our 
Lord mean that the judgments which came upon the unbe- 
lieving nation would be a proof by which they would find out 
that He was the sent One of the Father? We think both views 
are true. After His death thousands of the Jews who had re- 
jected Him believed on His Name and were saved. His 
resurrection demonstrated the fact that He is the Son of God, 
and that all He spoke was of the Father. But, on the other 
hand, the Jews, and Jerusalem, impenitent as a nation, found 
out also that He is the Sonof God. The great Jewish histor-— 
ian Josephus attributed rightly the misfortunes of the Jewish 
people to the death of Christ. What calmness and assurance 
breathe in His words, ‘And He that sent Me is with Me; 
the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those 
things that please Him.’’ Never was that fellowship between 
the Father and the Son broken. On the Cross He was for- 
saken of God, but in anticipation of His coming suffering He 
could say to His disciples, ‘““Ye shall leave Me alone, and yet 
I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (xvi:32). 
Then many believed on Him, but not in the true sense of the 
word. They were convinced in a certain measure, but hearts 
and consciences were not touched. We have no record 
that they fell at His feet to worship Him, or that they fol- 
lowed Him as true disciples. 

Those who professed to believe on Him He now addresses 
in a few sentences, and what follows demonstrates the fact 
stated above that they did not believe on Him in true faith. 
He gives them a test of true discipleship. “If ye continue in 
my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.”? Such is the only 


162 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


real and safe proof of discipleship. He that is truly saved 
and a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ will continue in His 
Word. ‘‘And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall 
make you free.”” Knowing the Lord Jesus Christ is knowing 
the Truth, for He is the Truth. And furthermore He is the 
key which unlocks all the Truth of God, for He is the center 
of God’s revelation. And Christ the Truth, He and His 
Word, make us free, free from the bondage and burden of sin, 
free to serve God in newness of life. But how much more 
there is included in this one verse! 

Verses 33-41. Those whom He addressed had professed 
faith in Him. But now their language in answer to His 
words betrays their condition. Had they been true believers 
they would have accepted His Word and continued in it. 
They were proud, self-exalted Jews, unchanged from the 
condition in which they were when John the Baptist called 
them to repentance, for they said then, ““We have Abraham 
for our father” (Matt. iii:19). They boasted of freedom, yet 
they were domineered over by the Romans, and it was a 
heavy yoke. But underneath this language was the un- 
changed heart, the heart of pride and self-sufficiency. It is 
so today. We find thousands upon thousands in the pro- 
fessing churches who are in the same condition. ‘They have 
never seen their lost condition; they do not believe that they 
are dead in trespasses and sins; they do not own themselves 
helpless and slaves to sin. What the Jews said, ‘‘Webe 
Abraham’s seed,” is heard throughout the professing sphere 
of Christendom; ‘‘We go to church. . . . we were baptized. 

. we do this and do that. . . . Howcan we be lost?” 

His answer to them is, “‘Whosever committeth sin is a 
servant of sin.”’ This sentence demonstrates what freedom 
the Lord meant, not political freedom, but freedom from 
the slavery of sin in which every natural man is. Man is 
a sinner, he has a nature which is corrupt and which is 
capable of nothing else but sinning. He must live habitually 
in sin, and therefore he is mastered by sin, he is a slave. It 
is the new nature, the new life in Christ, which delivers 
from this bondage. 

The servant abideth not in the house forever, but the 
Son abideth ever. They were under the Jewish economy 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 163 


nothing but servants, and there was no hope for them in 
their own system of ever advancing beyond that, or abiding 
in the house forever. It is different with a son, he abides 
forever. And Sonship was offered to them by Him who had 
spoken to them, and in whom they professed to believe. “‘If 
the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free 
indeed.”” This connects with verse 32 and has the same 
meaning, with the additional meaning of free from the law, 
which is a bondage and heavy yoke. 

They did not need to tell Him that they were Abraham’s 
seed. They sought to kill Him, because His word had no 
place in them, they had refused to believe on Him, and 
therefore the murderer from the beginning could use them 
as his ready instruments. This thought is further brought 
out in the verses which follow. He, the Son of God, speaks 
what He had seen with the Father, but they did what they 
had seen of their father, and their father was the devil, as 
we learn from verse 44. 

Once more they fall back on their father Abraham, most 
likely because the Lord had contrasted His Father with their 
father; so they said “‘Abraham is our father.” But if they 
really were Abraham’s children they would also do Abra- 
ham’s works. But how could they do Abraham’s works if 
they had not Abraham’s faith. He believed God and that 
was counted to him for righteousness. He whom Abraham 
believed was now in their midst, yet they did not believe 
on Him; therefore they were not in truth children of Abra- 
ham. He uncovered their hearts. They sought to kill Him, 
and He calls Himself ‘‘a man” who had told them the truth. 
Would Abraham have done a deed like this? Here is the 
evidence that they did not the works of Abraham, but the 
deeds of their father, another one. This they resented and 
then claimed the Fatherhood of God, with all their satanic 
wickedness in their hearts. 

Verses 42-47. But was this the truth? He is the Son; 
they hated Him whom they saw; if God were their Father 
they would manifest it by loving the Son, whom the Father 
had sent, who had come to them from God. “Love” it has 
been truly said, “‘is the infallible mark of all true children of 
God. Would we know whether we are born again, whether 


164 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


we are children of God? There is one simple way of finding 
it out. Do we love Christ? If not, it is vain and idle to 
talk of God as our Father, and ourselves as God’s children. 
No love to Christ, no sonship to God.”” They did not under- 
stand His speech because they were not willing to hear and 
accept His word. 

Then He tells them to their faces what He meant when 
He had spoken of their father. In verse 44 we have the 
Lord’s revelation concerning the devil, that once magnifi- 
cent and glorious being, who fell and became the enemy 
of God. They were his followers, for they were ready to do 
his bidding in killing the Lord of glory. He was a murderer 
from the beginning and abode not in the truth, for there is 
no truth in him. Some apply this to his first murderous 
act, when he induced Cain to slay his brother Abel, but it 
rather means that this being from the beginning was de- 
termined to bring in sin and death. Besides this he is the 
liar and the father of it. Our Lord teaches here the per- 
sonality of the devil; He teaches the fall of this being as 
well as the character of him. Yet the modern Theology 
denies both the existence of the devil and the fall of such 
a being. If the devil can laugh, he must surely laugh over 
these theological scholars whom he has blinded to such a 
degree that they deny their own master’s existence. The 
devil spoke the lie, the Jews believed that lie; the Son of 
God in their midst spoke the truth, and Him they believed 
not. 

Two questions follow: “Which of you convinceth Me of 
sin?”? There was no answer. In Him was no sin; He was 
holy and undefiled; not a flaw in all His spotless holy life. 
The second question, “If I say the Truth, why do ye not 
believe Me?” Nor did they have an answer for this. The 
Lord answers the last question. “He that is of God heareth 
God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are 
not of God.” They were not of God, therefore they hated 
Him and did not believe His words. 

Verses 48-53. The Lord had told them “ye are of your 
father, the devil’ (verse 44). They now bear witness to the 
truth of His words, for what they say concerning Him is 
satanic abuse and blasphemy. They did not understand 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 165 


what He had been saying to them; their natural minds could 
not lay hold on what He taught, yet they must have felt the 
power of His words and the power of His own person. Un- 
able to answer they manifested their hatred in calling Him 
vilenames. ‘To calla Jew a Samaritan meant the same as 
making of the Jew an outcast, a deluded, wicked apostate. 
Furthermore they charged Him with being possessed by a 
demon. With this they committed the same sin which is 
called in the Gospel of Matthew ‘“‘the blasphemy and sin 
against the Holy Spirit”? (Matthew xii:31), for if He was a 
Samaritan and controlled by the devil’s power, His works 
were not done by the power of God. 

But this horrible abuse only brings out the moral glory of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not hurl back at them some 
harsh words, which they well deserved. One feels the very 
calmness of His holy soul in the recorded answer He gives. 
“T have not a devil; but I honor My Father, and ye dishonor 
Me.” It is a straightforward denial of their blasphemous 
charge. In all His words, in all His works, He honored the 
Father who had sent Him; hence they were dishonoring 
Him. Had He come simply to seek glory for Himself, the 
accusation they uttered would have completely humiliated 
Him in His ambition; but He did not come to seek His own 
glory. He sought only the glory of the Father, therefore 
they had insulted God. He added a solemn word—“There 
is One that seeketh and judgeth.”” He means the Father. 
While He the Son came to seek His Glory, the Father 
seeketh the Glory of His Son. Whenever we, as believers, 
honor the Son, seek His glory, exalt His Name, we please the 
Father, whose delight is in the Son. But the Father not 
only seeketh the Glory of the Son, but He is going to judge. 
He will deal with all who dishonor His beloved Son. ‘“‘What 
have you done with my Son?” will be the great question the 
unsaved and the Gospel-rejectors have to face, when He, 
the Son, will occupy the judgment throne, to execute the 
judgments the Father has committed unto Him. All the 
dishonor done to Christ, the dishonor done to Him by the 
destructive critics, by Unitarians, Christian Scientists, Jews, 
Theosophists and Spiritists will then be reckoned with. 

And now once more He speaks of the great truth which all 


166 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


along in this Gospel is unfolded, the truth concerning eternal 
life. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep My say- 
ing, he shall never see death.”” This had been His great 
message in the sixth chapter, and now once more He declared 
it in their hearing. If they would keep His saying, which 
means, hear the words He had spoken, believe on them and 
obey them, death could not touch them. It cannot mean 
physical death, but that other death, the eternal loss of the 
soul. Augustinus comments on this passage as follows: 
“The death from which our Lord came to deliver us is the 
second death, eternal death, the death of hell, the death of 
damnation with the devil and his angels. ‘That is indeed 
death; for this death of ours is only a migration.” 

These wonderful words of life brought forth the former 
accusation from the listening Jews. ‘They found in them, in 
the darkness of their hearts, an evidence that their charge 
that He had a devil was true. ‘“‘Now we know that thou 
hast a devil.” ‘Their reasoning is human. They think of 
Abraham and the prophets. They are all dead and here is 
one who claims that if His sayings are kept by a man “‘he 
shall never taste death.” But the Lord had not said this at 
all; they misquoted His words. ‘Thus they always perverted 
His words; it is still so today as far as the blind world is 
concerned. Whom makest thou thyself in view of the fact 
that Abraham is dead and the prophets are dead? 

Verses 54-59. He disclaims all honor for Himself; His 
Father honoreth Him, the same whom they claimed as the 
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 
He told them that they did not know Him. They professed to 
know God; by their deeds they denied Him. But He, the 
Son, knows the Father, and if He were to say “I know Him 
not”? He would be a liar, as they were liars. ‘Then He added 
that significant statement: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to 
see My day; and he saw it and was glad.” Previously they 
had asked “fart thou greater than our father Abraham?” 
This question He now answers. He does not say “our father 
Abraham” as the Jews still say when speaking of the father 
of the race. By using ‘‘your’” He gave them to understand 
the He cannot be classed with the nation as such. While 
He was the Son of David and the Son of Abraham, yet was 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 167 


He not the Son of Abraham in the same sense as every Jew 
is the Son of Abraham. ‘Then the omniscient Lord said that 
Abraham rejoiced to see His day, that he actually saw it and 
was glad. This shows that Abraham had knowledge of the 
coming of the Messiah, his seed, in whom all the nations 
are to be blest. The Holy Spirit opened the eyes of the father 
of the faithful and showed him the future days of the prom- 
ised One. We do not know at what time such a vision was 
given to Abraham. It may have been when the Lord visited 
him in the tent at Mamre; perhaps it was on the great day 
when he put his beloved Isaac upon the altar as the sacrifice, 
and received him back from the altar, the blessed types of 
the death and the resurrection of our Lord. It is certain 
from the words of the Lord that Abraham looked forward 
to the days when He, the Lord of glory, would be in the midst 
of His people. 

Astonished at such a statement His hearers said, ‘“Thou 
art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” 
Some have supposed that the face of our Lord must have 
looked care-worn, furrowed by deep lines, so that the people 
thought that He was perhaps nearly fifty years old. It 
was probably only an expression of common usage; His 
exact age was not known tothem. What He meant they hear 
now from His lips. “Verily, verily, [ say unto you, Before 
Abraham was, I am.” Without doubt this is one of the 
greatest words spoken by our Lord in witnessing to Himself. 
There is only one explanation possible. He speaks of Him- 
self as Jehovah, the I Am, the self-existing One. Before 
them stands the same One who appeared in the burning 
bush unto Moses and said, “‘Say unto the children of Israel, 
I AM hath sent me.” Here then is the great testimony 
He bears as to His own person. He reveals Himself as 
Jehovah, the pre-existent One. Before Abraham was— 
not I was—but, I Am. 

This, at least, the Jews seemed to understand. They 
were not in doubt of what He meant. He had spoken to 
them in no uncertain tones and they realized that He claimed 
to be Jehovah, very God Himself. All their satanic hatred, 
born of unbelief, is now manifested. They took up stones 
to stone Him. They were but following their master, the 


168 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


murderer, from the beginning. It is one of Satan’s attempts 
to kill the Lord. ‘But Jesus hid Himself, and went out 
of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed 
by.”” Did He merely hide Himself, or was it a miraculous 
disappearance? We believe it was the latter. In his com- 
ment Augustinus says, ‘“‘Jesus did not hide Himself in a corner 
of the temple as if He were afraid, or take refuge in a house 
or run behind a wall or a pillar; but by His heavenly power 
He made Himself invisible to His enemies, and went through 
the midst of them.”” We believe this is the correct meaning 
of this event. His enemies could not touch Him till the 
appointed hour for His passion and death came. And 
when it came He suffered and died, not because He could 
not escape, but because He would not. 


CHAPTER IX 


Verses 1-5. ‘The contents of the entire ninth chapter are 
only found in this Gospel. As to the time, whether im- 
mediately after the happenings recorded in the previous 
chapter, or some time after, we have no certainty. It was 
probably a few days later, on a Sabbath (Verse 14). Some 
have stated that the miracle of the healing of the blind man 
happened as the Lord passed from the murderous multitude, 
inasmuch as the word rendered “‘passed by” is the same as 
in the last verse of the eighth chapter. But that is impos- 
sible, for we read, “Jesus hid Himself,” and that was a mirac- 
ulous hiding. | 

As he passed by he saw that blind man. No appeal came 
from his lips. He knew nothing of Him and His power who 
passed by, nor could he see the Lord. But the Lord saw 
the blind man, and perhaps halted and looked compassion- 
ately upon him. How the disciples knew that his affliction 
was congenital blindness we do not know; perhaps he was 
like the impotent man in the third chapter of Acts, a familiar 
figure, and, as a mendicant, may have been in the same 
place for many years. His disciples asked Him, ‘‘who did 
sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind.” The 
question arose undoubtedly from the Jewish opinion that 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 169 


such afflictions were the result of some special sin and that 
the man born blind was punished on account of it. In a 
general way all disease and affliction is the result of sin. 
The Jewish error that physical afflictions are the direct result 
of some wicked deed may have originated by misunder- 
standing what the Lord spoke in Exodus xx:5, “visiting 
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children.” Job’s friends 
also shared this common idea as to suffering, and charged 
Job with being an unrighteous man. It seems that the in- 
habitants of the island Melita also held the same view, for 
when Paul had been bitten by the viper they said, “this 
man is a murderer.” 

The same is held by some of the extreme “faith healers” 
and so-called “‘divine healers.”” They teach that a child of 
God is afflicted on account of some unconfessed sin; some 
have gone so far as to say when no results follow the “‘anoint- 
ing with oil’? and the sick one is not raised up, that it is on 
account of some special sin. ‘This is foolish, unscriptural 
fanaticism. 

The Lord corrects this popular error, that some special 
affliction is and must be a-punishment for some special sin. 
“Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents.” The blind- 
ness with which the man was afilicted from his mother’s 
womb was not the result of some particular sin. ‘This man’s 
blindness was known to God; it was permitted by Him in 
His all-wise purpose. It was thus allowed by God so that 
His own glory through this miracle of mercy and power 
might be demonstrated—“‘that the works of God should be 
manifested in him.” A double work was then manifest in 
this man; he was miraculously cured and then, after his cure, 
another work of God was worked, when he believed on the 
Son of God; as it is written, “the work of God is to believe 
on Him whom He hath sent” (John vi:29). 

It is a deep and weighty statement our Lord made, and 
throws some light on the question of the origin and existence 
of evil. God permits it and allows it to exist for His own 
glory; yet this does not fully explain God’s great mystery, 
unfathomed by the finite mind of man, as toevil. The man 
was thus ordained to be blind so that the works of God might 
be made manifest. It was so with Lazarus, whose death 


170 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


was permitted “for the glory of God, that the Son of God 
might be glorified thereby” (John xi:4). 

Then our Lord speaks of the fact that His activity as man 
upon the earth is now soon toclose. “I must work the works 
of Him that sent Me, while it is day; the night cometh when 
no man can work.” But what did He mean when He spoke 
of the approaching night. As long as He was here on earth 
it was “‘day.”’ When he left this earth, rejected by man, 
it became “night.”’ This age in which we live is “‘night,” 
yet faith in that night, the faith of the believer, can look 
up into the heavens and know itself there in Christ. Such 
use is made of night and day by the Apostle in Romans 
xili:12—“‘The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” The 
night is now, when Christ is not here; the day refers to His 
coming again. ‘This interpretation is fully confirmed by the 
next statement our Lord makes: “As long as J am in the 
world, I am the light of the world.” 

Verses 6-7. The blind man had listened to the words of 
the Lord Jesus, but we hear nothing of an appeal from his lips. 
The Lord healed him of his blindness unasked and un- 
expectedly. Instead of speaking the word of power by which 
He could have given sight to the eyes of this blind man, He 
did, partially, that which He had done before in healing one 
deaf and dumb (Mark vii:33), and another blind man 
(Mark viii:23). He spat on the ground, and made clay 
of the spittle and then anointed the eyes of the blind man 
with the clay. It is said that it was believed at that time 
that clay and spittle had curative properties, but even if 
there were any truth in this foolish belief, one born blind, 
with no optic nerves, could not be healed by such a remedy. 
Why did the Lord do this? To do this He had to 
lean down, as He did in the eighth chapter, when He leaned 
down and wrote on the ground. The finger which wrote 
thus had also written the law which pronounced death upon 
the sinner, and here in forming clay with spittle, we have a 
reminder that He once formed man out of the dust of the 
earth and that He has therefore the power to heal one born 
blind. And the miracle which took place is the evidence 
that He who healed the man was the Almighty Creator 
Himself. Spittle is connected with humiliation and deepest 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 171 


reproach. ‘The action of our Lord appears then to be a wit- 
ness to His own person. He is the Lord who has all power; 
He came in humiliation to suffer shame. He had come to 
Israel to open their eyes. 

But the application of the clay did not remove the blind- 
ness of the man. If nothing else had been done, the blind 
man would not have been healed. The Lord sent him to a 
pool of water. ‘‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam (which is 
by interpretation, Sent). He went his way, therefore, and 
washed, and came seeing.” ‘That also was the instruction 
given to the leper Naaman when Elisha told him, “Go, 
wash in Jordan.” Not that the waters of Jordan or Siloam 
had power in them to heal of leprosy or blindness. It was a 
test of faith and obedience. The water typifies both the 
Word of God and the Spirit of God. The meaning of Siloam 
is especially emphasized as being “‘Sent,’”’ because the heart 
must believe on Him who is the sent One, whom the Father 
sent into the world to do His will and to finish the great work 
on the cross; then the Holy Spirit does His gracious work. 
And so this blind man obeyed the voice he had heard, 
though he did not see the person. We do not know if some 
one took him by the hand when he expressed the desire, or 
if he groped his own way towards the pool of Siloam. He 
did not question the direction given to him, but obeyed 
implicitly. Then he was healed and came seeing. And this 
is the process still with the natural man in spiritual darkness. 

A careful survey of the Gospels will show that our Lord 
healed more blind people than any other class of afflicted 
ones. A deaf and dumb one had his hearing and speech 
restored; then there was one case of palsy and dropsy healed; 
two lepers and two suffering with fever are recorded as hav- 
ing been healed; three were raised from the dead, but four, 
or probably five, cases of blindness healed are recorded. The 
reason for this is not far to seek. In the great prophecy of 
Isaiah relating to the Messianic Kingdom, the coming 
millennium, we read, “then the eyes of the blind shall be 
opened” (Isaiah xxxv:5). Again it is written in Isaiah, 
“in that day . . . the eyes of the blind shall see out of ob- 
scurity, and out of darkness” (xxix:18); and in Isaiah 
xlii:7 it is stated that the work of the King will be ‘“‘to 


172 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


open the eyes as of the blind.’ ‘These miracles the Lord 
wrought when He opened the eyes of the blind attested Him 
as the promised King. They were of an evidential character 
and showed to Israel that the King was in their midst with 
the powers of “the age tocome. . .”’ Significant, therefore, 
is this healing of the man born blind, as it follows after His 
great self-witness in the preceding chapter, on account of 
which the unbelieving Jews wanted to stone him. The 
miracle showed Him that He is Jehovah and Israel’s King. 

Modern “‘faith healers,” the present-day miracle men and 
women, with their twisted and unscriptural teachings, 
claim to perpetuate miracles of healing, among which the 
healing of the blind takes a prominent place. They some- 
times claim, what deluded Christian Science claims, that 
they do the same miracles our Lord did. But have all these 
“divine healers’? ever healed a man who was born blind? 
Will they ever do it? Certainly not. 

Verses 8-12. The miracle attracted wide attention. All 
the neighbors, who probably knew the blind beggar for 
many years, came together, and seeing him healed, asked in 
astonishment: ‘‘Is not this he that sat and begged?’ Some, 
who knew him well, said, ‘“This is he,’ while others expressed 
a doubt and said, “He is like him.”” He himself set all their 
questionings at rest by affirming that it was he. 

They asked him the question how his eyes had been opened, 
and he gives them a simple account of what had happened. 
But when they asked him “where is He?”’—that is, Jesus, 
who had healed him—he answered, “I know not.” 

Verzes 13-16. ‘There must have been great excitement 
among the people on account of this great miracle. ‘Those 
who knew him intimately were convinced that it was a 
miracle. He had been blind from his birth and now he 
possessed complete sight. It was therefore not a “‘fake- 
miracle,” like those claimed today in Christendom by the so- 
called miracle men and women who, through hypnotism, do 
certain things which last just as long as a hypnotic spell lasts. 
The people therefore brought the man before the religious 
authorities to be examined by them. And here the informa- 
tion is given that it was on the Sabbath-day our Lord had 
made the clay and healed the blind man. ‘The Pharisees now 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 173 


begin to question him how he had received his sight. The 
healed beggar gives a straightforward witness; they could not 
pick a flaw in the simple testimony. As it was with the lame 
man in the fifth chapter, whom the Lord also healed on the 
Sabbath day, and on account of which they tried to slay 
Him, so here; they charge Him with not being of God because 
He had done the deed on the Sabbath. 

But not all of the rulers branded the Lord as a wicked 
man, because He had done this good deed on the Sabbath. 
Others said: “How can a man that is a sinner do such 
miracles??? We doubt not that Nicodemus headed this fac- 
tion, which attempted a defense of the Lord. This great 
Pharisee and teacher in Israel had given expression to his 
belief when he visited the Lord. He was convinced that the 
miracles the Lord Jesus did were of God and that God was 
with Him. As a result there was a division among them 
(See viii:43). 

Verses 17-23. On account of the division among those 
who were the rulers of the people, they were obliged to in- 
vestigate this case more fully. A closer examination there- 
fore follows. They therefore inquire first of all what he 
thinks of the one who opened his eyes. With this question 
they practically confessed that they believed that his eyes 
had been opened. If this question was asked by those who 
declared that “This man is not of God, because he keepeth 
not the Sabbath,” then malice must have been the motive; 
they hoped that some damaging statement might come from 
the lips of the healed man. He answered, ‘‘He is a prophet.” 
How did the man know that. It is evident that the healed 
beggar did not see the Lord at all. The Lord sent him to 
wash, and the record says nothing of the blind man that he 
had even a glimpse of Him who had anointed his eyes and 
told him to wash. Verses 35-38 make this very clear. How, 
then, could he say that He is a prophet. In all probability 
he must have asked the people whoit was. And they may 
have answered, ‘‘Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth”; for this 
seems to have been the popularconception among the masses. 

He must have heard that it was the Prophet of Nazareth; 
he believed what he heard and gladly confessed Him as 
Prophet. Faith thus began in his soul. 


174 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Finding that the healed man gave a straightforward 
answer once more, which they could not twist and pervert, 
they tried another avenue of approach. They tried to find 
a way to discredit the miracle by refusing to believe that he 
had been blind at all. They called his parents, hoping that 
they might say something which they might misconstrue 
and disprove the miracle. ‘They ask them if he is their son 
and if he was really born blind. It was a direct question 
and it was unhesitatingly answered by the father and mother 
of the man. We know this is our son, and that he was born 
blind. There could be no possible mistake about it. But 
they also asked, ‘“‘How then doth he now see.”’ 

But instead of repeating*the story as their son had given 
it to them, they professed ignorance as to who opened his 
eyes and by what means it was accomplished. They tell 
the rulers of the people that their son is no longer a child, 
that he is of age; that they cannot be held responsible for 
him. They request the rulers to ask him, and that he will 
speak for himself. We are not left in doubt why they spoke 
thus. It was for fear of the Jews of authority and power. 
The Sanhedrim had agreed that anyone who would confess 
that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ should be put out 
of the synagogue and be excommunicated. ‘They feared if 
they rehearsed what they had heard, how the Lord Jesus 
performed the miracle, that this might be their fate. 

Verses 24-29. Completely defeated with attempt to up- 
set the story of the healing of this man, unable to get any 
information from the parents, which would have helped 
them in the denial of the miracle, they once more call the 
man himself. They start in with a very pious phrase, “Give 
God the praise.”?’ Acknowledge yourself now that only God 
could have done this miracle of opening your eyes. This of 
course was true. Only God can open the eyes of one who 
was blind from birth. But the pious statement was pure 
hypocrisy, for they added, ‘“‘We know this man is a sinner.” 
They tried to ensnare him to assent to this statement that 
God had healed him, and then reject Him who wrought 
the miracle. How simple is this man’s answer. He speaks 
of two things, one thing which he knew not: ‘‘Whether He 
be a sinner or no, I know not.”” Then he spoke of another 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 175 


thing he knew: “One thing I know, that, whereas I was 
blind, now I see.’”? Concerning Him who healed him he 
could not bear witness, for he knew not who he was. Later 
the Lord revealed Himself to the healed one and then he 
fell at His feet to worship. 

But of one thing he was sure. One thing could never be 
questioned. One thing was gloriously true, “Being blind, 
now I see”’ (literal rendering). The awful night of blindness 
had been lifted and he saw the sun and enjoyed a new exis- 
tence. A wonderful change had come over him and all the 
world could never shake his testimony. 

And millions after him have used his words of testimony 
after being saved by grace. Yea, this is the true confession 
of every child of God who has passed from death to life, 
from darkness to light, from the power of Satan into God: 
“One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” 
The great change brought about by the operation of the 
Spirit of God in the heart and life of the believer is as great 
as the healing of a man born blind. 

The Jewish rulers were again defeated. They had ac- 
knowledged that the man had been healed, and now his 
own words sealed this fact beyond any doubt whatever. 
Yet they were not discouraged. Once more they questioned 
him as to the manner in which our Lord had opened his 
eyes. They but digged their own graves of shameful defeat. 

It seems as if the healed beggar lost his patience. He had 
told them before how the Lord had made clay, put it on his 
eyes, sent him to the pool to wash, and now they asked 
once more, “What did He do to thee.” In sarcasm he 
answered them, and asked why they wanted to hear it 
again; if they intended to be His disciples also. 

They reviled him for his bold language and ridicule and 
charged him with being a disciple of the Lord, which in the 
darkness of their wicked hearts they imagined a great dis- 
honor, while they claimed to be Moses’ disciples. They 
were convinced that God spoke to Moses. In this at least 
these religious corrupt leaders were better than the destruc- 
tive critic leaders of Christendom, who deny that God ever 
spoke to Moses. But they denied that the Lord, whom 
they called “this fellow,’ had been sent by God; they be- 


176 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


lieved that He had no divine commission, yet the Lord Jesus 
Christ, the eternal Jehovah had appeared unto Moses, com- 
missioned Moses, and spoken to him. He is greater than 
Moses. 

Verses 30-34. We doubt not that the man in answering 
back had the aid of the Holy Spirit, for what he says presents 
a perfect and unanswerable argument. He expressed aston- 
ishment that these leaders of the nation said that they knew 
Him not, nor who gave Him the power to perform so great 
a miracle in opening his eyes. ‘Then he declares that it 
would be impossible that He who had opened his eyes was 
a sinner, for God would not hear a sinner, but if God acknowl- 
edges a man and manifests His power through him, he must 
be a true worshipper of God and be obedient to Him. He 
becomes bolder and declares that since the world began such 
a thing as opening the eyes of a blind man, by a mere man, 
was never heard before. Then he crowned his masterly 
argument by expressing his conviction that the man who had 
healed him must be of God. 

He had silenced the great men of the Pharisees completely. 
They could not reply to these statements and were, there- 
fore, defeated. All that was left to them was either to accept 
the testimony or to reject it. They became infuriated. 
They charged him that he was altogether born in sins, that 
he was a wicked man, and they cast him out. They did that 
which we read in verse 23, they put him out of the synagogue. 

Verses 35-41. Probably the man was staggered. He 
may have trembled at the thought that he had been ex- 
communicated, for it was a shame to be put outside; it made 
him an outcast, one who had no more right to the appointed 
worship and the privileges of the commonwealth of Israel. 
It must have had the meaning for him as if he were now a 
lost soul. 

They had cast him out, but in doing this they only cast 
him into the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 
Where our Lord was while all this took place we do not 
know, but we know that He knew all that had happened, 
and though He was not bodily present, He had heard every 
word which had been spoken, for He is the omniscient Lord. 
When the excommunication of the healed man was publicly 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 177 


announced then our Lord looked for the man. He had kept 
track of him; he was never out of His sight. He found him. 
Says Chrysostom on this passage: “They who for the sake 
of the truth and confession of Christ suffer anything and 
are insulted, these are specially honored. So it was here 
with the blind man. The Jews cast him out of the temple, 
and the Lord of the temple found him. He was dishonored 
by those who dishonor Christ, and was honored by the 
Lord of angels.”? He had lost the synagogue but finds in- 
stead the Lord, heaven and glory. The synagogue would 
not longer have him, but he becomes the sheep of the good 
Shepherd, as we find it in the chapter which follows. 

He asks him a direct question: “Dost thou believe on 
the Son of God?” Then came from the man the longing 
heart cry, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” 
And he did not need to wait for the answer to his question. 
The Lord at once revealed Himself. ‘““Thou hast both seen 
Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.” Thus our Lord 
once more bore witness to His Deity. Did the blind man 
know that the One who was speaking to him was He who 
had healed him. The text says nothing about it. As we) 
saw before, the blind man had not seen the Lord after his 
eyes had been opened. Though the Lord did not say to 
him in words, I am He who healed thee, yet the man must 
have known and felt, as the Lord addresses him and re- 
veals Himself as the Son of God, that He had healed him. 
He probably also recognized Him by the tone of His voice. 
Then he said, “Lord, I believe” and worshipped Him. Faith 
and true worship go together. 

When next our Lord declares that He came for judgment 
into the world, it does not mean that He came for con- 
demnation (John iii:17); He came to reveal the right 
conditions, to lay them bare by His omniscient discrim: 
ination. The comment of Augustinus on this verse is 
correct: “‘Who are those that see, those who think they 
see, who believe they see? The judgment which Christ has 
brought into the world is not wherewith He shall judge the 
quick and the dead in the end. It is a work of discrimination 
rather, by which He discerneth the case of them that believe 
from that of the proud who think they see, and therefore 


178 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


are worse blinded.”’ ‘““Those who see not” may be applied 
to the Gentiles, and “those who see,” or claimed to see, 
the Jews. The boast of the Jews, especially the boast 
of the Pharisees, was that they had the light. Paul 
bears witness to this in Rom. iii:19: “And art confident 
that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them 
which are in darkness.”” And when He came who is the 
Light of the world they rejected Him, and thus they became 
blind, with all their profession that they were seeing. 

Some of the Pharisees listen to these words. ‘They voice 
at once their displeasure, realizing He meant them. Are 
we blind also? It was another sneer at Him and His teach- 
ing. Heanswered them as.they well deserved. If they were 
really blind they would have no sin in having rejected Him, 
but their boast was that they were seeing, and yet they re- 
jected Him; their sin therefore “‘remaineth.” 


CHAPTER X 


Verses 1-6. ‘The blind man, whom our Lord had healed, 
who had fallen at His feet, worshipping Him as the Son of 
God, and who had been cast out by the blind leaders of the 
blind, had become the sheep of the Shepherd, who came to 
seek and to save that which is lost. ‘The teachings given 
next by our Lord are therefore closely related to this incident. 
The beginning of this chapter refers to the false teachers and 
guides of the Jewish people, those whom the Lord denounced 
in the closing verse of the eighth chapter. The sixth verse 
tells us that the Lord spoke to them in a parable,““This 
parable spake Jesus untothem.” It is one of the few parables 
recorded in John’s Gospel not found in the Synoptic Gospels. 

The parable is introduced with another, “‘Verily, verily, I 
say unto you.” ‘The parable contains a very familiar figure 
of the Old Testament Scriptures. Jacob in his prophecy 
spoke of “the Shepherd of Israel,”’ who is “‘the stone of Israel” 
as well (Gen.xliv:24); in the eightieth Psalm, that great 
prophetic Psalm, the Shepherd of Israel is addressed, and 
that Shepherd is the Lord Himself, for ““He dwelleth between 
the Cherubim” (Psa. lxxx:1). Isaiah beholds Him feeding 


THE GOSPLE OF JOHN 179 


His flock, “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd” (Isa. 
xl:11); Ezekiel received a great message concerning the false 
shepherds of Israel, their judgment, and the true Shepherd 
who will gather His sheep (Ezek. xxxiv); Zechariah, too, had 
a vision concerning the shepherds (chapter xi); and in another 
passage we read, ““Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, 
and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of 
hosts; smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, 
and I will turn my hand to the little ones” (Zech. xiii:7). If 
the listening Pharisees, the false shepherds of the nation, 
knew their own Scriptures, the parable of the Lord in its 
meaning would have been clear to them, “but they under- 
stood not what things they were which He spake unto them”’ 
(verse 6). 

Here the sheepfold is Judaism, and to it the Shepherd of 
Israel, the promised Messiah, had come. He came in the 
appointed way, not in “some other way,” like the thief and 
the robber, those who sought their own gain and benefit. 
These are the false shepherds, including the leaders of the 
people in whose presence He spoke this allegory. And because 
He came by the right door to the sheepfold, in grace and right- 
eousness, as the holy One, the porter opened to Him. The 
porter signifies the power of God by His Spirit, by which 
the door was opened, though the false shepherds tried to 
keep Him out. He came, and as a result “‘the sheep hear 
His voice.”” But all the sheep of Israel did not hear His 
voice and accept Him; only those who were given to Him 
by His Father. ‘Thus He came and called “His own sheep”’ 
by name. The healed man was one of them, and so were 
Philip and Nathanael, as well as Mary, Martha, Lazarus, 
and the others who believed on Him and followed the true 
Shepherd. 

Then follows what is nowhere mentioned in the prophets, 
“He leadeth them out,” which means that He leads 
them out from the fold of Judaism into different pas- 
ture. Luther comments on this passage in the following 
words: “The ‘leading out’ is the Christian:liberty, that:they 
are now free and no longer locked up and imprisoned as 
they were before under the anxious constraint and fear of 
the law and divine judgment; but are now under the sweet 


180 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


kingdom of the grace of Christ.””> Those who followed Him 
were set free, receiving from Him eternal life; they were 
to be brought outside of the Jewish fold and to constitute 
afterwards not another fold, but His flock, the one flock, 
His Church. He Himself “goeth before them” as the shep- 
herd goes before the sheep. Wherever the Shepherd goes 
the sheep follow after Him. They cast Him out and He 
was outside; there the sheep are with Him. The path He 
went is the path in which His sheep follow. And when the 
Shepherd died for the sheep, He went before them in a still 
higher sense. The good Shepherd became the great Shep- 
herd of the Sheep in resurrection, and has gone before to 
the place where in His own time all His sheep will follow 
Him. The mark of His own sheep is that they hear His 
voice, and that a stranger they will not follow; they own 
but the one voice and the one authority. Like the sheep 
in the pasture, which know the tone of the shepherd’s voice; 
but when a strange voice calls they become frightened, 
and instead of obeying the strange voice, they flee; thus 
His own sheep know the voice of Himself, and, having spir- 
itual discernment, they will not follow another, though the 
false shepherd may simulate His voice. 

Verses 7-13. There was no response from the side of His 
hearers, for their darkened minds, and probably more so, 
their proud hearts, kept them from understanding what He 
said unto them. If they had known the message of Ezekiel 
(chapter xxxiv) and believed what Ezekiel had written, they 
would have understood what He spoke about. He, there- 
fore continues to speak to them: “Verily, verily I say unto 
you, I am the door of the sheep.” While He entered as 
the true Shepherd by the door into the sheepfold, Judaism, 
He now speaks of Himself as the door of the sheep. The 
only way of becoming a sheep of His flock is by Himself; 
there is no other way into the flock of God, the sheep of 
Christ, but by the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The eighth verse presents a difficulty: ‘‘All that ever 
came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep 
did not hear them.” ‘That this cannot mean the true 
Prophets of God, who came before Christ appeared on 
earth, is obvious. Attention has been called to the fact 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 181 


that in a number of leading manuscripts the two words 
translated “before me’ are omitted. Others translated 
these two words “instead of Me.’’ The latter would 
necessitate the view that our Lord speaks here prophet- 
ically, inasmuch as no persons preceded Him who claimed 
Messiahship, but the false Christs came after Him. ‘The 
difficulty seems to disappear if the words “‘before Me”’ are 
taken to mean precedence in authority, those who claimed 
precedence above Him. The Greek tense of the verb 
_ “come” (Aorist) does not necessarily mean a coming of the 
past only. Now the Pharisees rejected the authority of 
Christ and claimed to be teachers above Him. This they 
did in the examination of the blind man (ix:16 and 24). The 
view, then, that our Lord had in mind the Pharisees of His 
own time, who rejected Him and denied His Messianic 
authority, thereby claiming a place above Him, seems to 
be the correct one. The learned Lightfoot, in his comment, 
says that our Lord probably refers to the Pharisees, Sad- 
ducees, and the Essenes,who had long misled the Jews before 
Christ came, and that these three Jewish sects were the 
three false shepherds whose casting off is foretold in Zech. 
xi:8. And the sheep, true believers like Simeon and Anna, 
with many others did not hear them and placed no faith in 
these arrogant leaders and teachers of their nation. 

In the next verse we find another mention of the word 
*“‘door,” and here the great blessing—which is for those who 
have entered in by Him, who is the door—is more fully re- 
vealed. “I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he 
shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” 
When He speaks of Himself again as the door, it is in antici- 
pation of His death and resurrection. Not the Christ who 
walked in obedience on the earth is the door through which 
salvation, and all that goes with it, is bestowed through 
grace, but the Christ who died and rose again. Of this He 
speaks directly. Through the shepherd who died for the 
sheep salvation is secured. ‘The first great blessing through 
Him, by believing on Him, is salvation. This priceless gift 
for which He paid as the substitute of His sheep, belongs 
to each believer; it is the present and eternal possession of 


ce 


every sheep of Christ. That door stands open for “any 


182 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


man”; this is the “whosoever” of John 111:16 and Rev.xxii:17. 

But there is more than salvation, there is liberty and 
food as well. ‘“‘And shall go in and out,” this is liberty. 
The narrow fold does not permit that, for it means con- 
finement, lack of liberty. Thus it was in the Jewish fold. 
Christendom speaks unscripturally of different folds today: 
it means also confinement and not the liberty wherewith 
Christ has made us free. There is an anticipative state- 
ment of this word of our Lord in Num. xxvii:17. Moses 
asked the Lord to set a man over the congregation, those 
who are the people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand 
(Psa. xcv:7), and Moses said that the man whom the Lord 
would choose ‘‘may go out before them, and go in before 
them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring 
them in, that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep 
which have no shepherd.” ‘Then the Lord appointed Joshua, 
at his word they were to go out and at his word they were 
to go in (verse 21). Joshua is the name of our Lord; for 
the Greek Jesus is the Hebrew Joshua. And Joshua stands 
typically for Christ risen from the dead, who brings in His 
people. The Lord Jesus leads out into perfect liberty His 
own sheep and leads them in. Under the law there was no 
such liberty, but He came, sent forth by God to redeem 
those under the law, to lead them forth from bondage into 
the hberty of sons (Gal. iv). 

And there is food too, ‘‘and shall find pasture.” The 
pasture is not in the fold. ‘The sheep must go forth, out- 
side of the fold, to find that which sustains. Thus spake 
David of the great Shepherd, ‘‘He maketh me to lie down 
in green pastures” (Psa. xxiii). The blessed Shepherd pro- 
vides the food for His own; yea, He Himself is that food. 

This is followed by a contrast—‘The thief cometh not, 
but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come 
that they might have life, and that they might have it 
more abundantly.” The false shepherd, the thief, behind 
whom stands the liar and murderer from the beginning, 
comes to steal, to kill and to destroy; He came for the one 
great purpose, “‘that they might have life and have it abund- 
antly.”” The thief came to take life; He came to give life. 
What is the life and the life abundant? Life is the posses- 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 183 


sion of all who believe on Him; the believers in the Old 
Testament possessed spiritual life, for in Him was life; and 
the life was the light of men (John1:4). But He had come, 
the true God and the eternal life, and as we have learned 
from the preceding chapters, eternal life is His gift to all 
who believe on Him. ‘‘He that believeth on the Son hath 
eternal life.” : 

Those who heard Him speak and believed on Him when 
He was on earth received life, for He had said, ““The hour 
is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice 
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.” It was 
true then, as it is true now, “‘He that heareth my words and 
believeth Him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall 
not come into judgment, but is passed from death into 
life’ (John v:24). His disciples who had believed on Him 
possessed this life; they knew the Father and the Son, for 
“this is eternal life,’ as He tells us in His great prayer (chap- 
ter xvii), “that they should know Thee the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”? But life abund- 
ant, the fullness of that life, the abundance of it, was 
made known after His finished work, after He had passed 
through death, was raised from among the dead, seated at 
the right hand of God, and after the Holy Spirit came. Now 
the abundant life is fully revealed, and those who have 
believed on Him possess in Him that abundant life, which 
has triumphed over death; they are risen in Christ, seated 
in Christ, complete in Him, sons of God, heirs of God, in- 
dwelt by the Holy Spirit, one spirit with the Lord, identi- 
fied with Him, and members of His body. This abundant 
life is the believer’s portion. It does therefore not mean 
some kind of a deeper, individual experience, unscripturally 
termed “the second blessing,” or ‘fa holiness experience.” 
Every believer through grace has this life abundantly. 

Then follows that precious verse in which He speaks of 
Himself as the good Shepherd, and His sacrificial work. 
“TI am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd giveth His life 
for the sheep.” This statement sums up all the predictions 
and types of the Old Testament Scriptures concerning Him 
and His work of love. He came to die for the sheep, those 
who are given to Him by the Father. This statement also 


184 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


answers completely the miserable invention that Christ 
died to seal in death the Truth He had preached, that He 
was a martyr on account of His convictions and His doc- 
trine. He did not lay down His life for His doctrines, but 
for His sheep. 

And now He speaks no longer of ‘thieves and robbers,” 
who entered the sheepfold, but of the hireling shepherd. 
What a contrast! The hireling only cares for what he can 
get out of the sheep. “They feed themselves . . . they 
eat the fat...they clothe themselves with the wool” 
(Ezek. xxxiv:1-6). They are not his sheep and he cares 
not for them. When the wolf appears, he flees. ‘The wolf 
catches the sheep and scattereth them. Such is the hire- 
ling; he knows nothing about loving the sheep. ‘The wolves 
are the false prophets and teachers (Matt. vii:15 and Acts 
xx:29) and behind them stands the great enemy, Satan. 
The hireling is the instrument through which the wolf 
catcheth and scattereth the sheep. 

Verses 14-18 Once more He speaks of Himself as the good 
shepherd, but now He mentions the fact that He knows His 
sheep, those for whom He died. He knows His own. Let 
us think of Him as One who knows thoroughly everything 
that each one of His own is feeling, and cannot utter to 
others. Every temptation from riches, from poverty, from 
solicitude, from society, from gifts of intellect, from the want 
of them, from gladness of spirit, from the barrenness and 
dreariness of it, from the whirlwind of passion, from the 
evil thoughts which spring up out of fleshly appetites, every 
sorrow and heartache, and everything else—He knows, and 
He knows us. And all He knows is through intense, in- 
most sympathy, not with the evil which is assaulting, but 
with His own who are assaulted by it. Thus He knows His 
sheep, as only He can know them; yea, He knows each by 
name. But the knowledge is mutual. He knows us and 
we know Him. But it is unfortunate that the authorized 
version has obscured the real meaning by a wrong punctua- 
tion. The right rendering is as follows: “I am the good 
shepherd and know Mine, and Mine know Me, even as the 
Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father, and I lay down 
My life for the sheep.” It is a most precious thought which 


THE “GOSPEL: OF “JOHN 185 


we meet here, that the mutual knowledge of Christ and His 
sheep is after the pattern of the knowledge of the Father 
and the Son, and the Son’s knowledge of the Father. The 
knowledge of the Father and of the Son is of mysterious, 
unfathomable depth, and because the knowledge of the Lord 
of His own and the knowledge of His own of Himself, is like- 
wise sO very wonderful it is thus linked with the mutual 
knowledge of Father and Son. 

Then once more He speaks of His great work of re- 
demption: “I lay down my life for the sheep.” In con- 
nection with His coming sacrificial death our Lord speaks 
Dim, other shcepia these) other sheep are ‘the Gentiles. 
That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same 
body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the 
Gospel, was not made known in other ages (Eph. ii1:1-6). 
Here our Lord gives the hint that such would be the 
case after He had laid down His life for the sheep, not 
only for the sheep of the Jewish fold, but the other sheep, 
the Gentiles. The other sheep, which are not of the Jew- 
ish fold, He would also lead, and they would hear His voice 
and follow Him. Then there will be one flock and one 
shepherd. The authorized version states “fone fold,” but 
this is a serious mistake. Not one fold, but one flock, not 
an exclusive enclosure of an outward church—but one 
flock, all knowing the one Shepherd, and known of Him.* 
This one flock is the one body as revealed in the great 
Epistles, especially in Ephesians. The fold is Jewish; to 
speak of the Church as a fold is Judaizing the Church, which 
is the almost universal thing today. Even those who have 
been used to emphasize the truth of the oneness of the body 
of Christ, who speak and teach of the Church as “‘the one 
flock,” have now their different folds or parties, and manifest 
the same unscriptural sectarian spirit as the more prominent 
sects. 

‘*Therefore (on this account) the Father loves Me, because 
~ *Luther’s comment is helpful: “The sheep, thought the most simple 
creature, is superior to all animals in this, that he soon hears his shep- 
herd’s voice, and will follow no other. Also he is clever enough to 
hang entirely on his shepherd, and to seek help from him only. He 
cannot help himself, nor find pasture for himself, nor heal himself, 


nor guard against wolves, but depends wholly and solely on the help 
of another.” 


186 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


I lay down my life, that I might take it again.” This is 
another deep statement revealing the relation of the Father 
and the Son. It has been said “‘we must be content to 
admire and believe what we cannot fully understand.” 
The infinite complacency, and approbation by the Father 
of the work His ever blessed Son came to do, was expressed 
by Him when our Lord in the beginning of His ministry, 
had gone into the baptismal waters of Jordan, and the 
Father’s voice declared, ‘“This is my beloved Son, in whom 
I am well pleased.”? Nor must we overlook the fact that 
in these words, as well as what follows in the next verse, 
our Lord speaks of Himself consciously as God: “I lay 
down my life....I take it again...I have power 
to lay it down....I have power to take it again.” It is 
the “I” of the Lord. Yet here, too, is His obedience in 
humiliation, “This commandment I received of My Father.” 

Verses 19-21. This is the third time according to this 
Gospel that there was a division on account of Him in Jeru- 
salem. ‘The schism was caused on account of these sayings. 
Thus was fulfilled Isa. vili:14: “He shall be... for a stone of 
stumbling’; and Simon’s word, “‘Behold this child is set 
for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a 
sign which shall be spoken against” (Luke 11:34). Then 
once more the blinded Jews accused Him of having a devil, 
while others defended Him. “Can a devil open the eyes 
of the blind?’ His miracles were not spurious, or produced 
by hypnotic influences, as it is the case today in Christian 
Science and different faith healing cults, but they were the 
manifestation of His own Divine power. In Isa. xxxv:5, 
that great prophecy concerning the kingdom and the king- 
dom signs, the opening of the eyes of the blind is especially 
mentioned. Some understood and believed that He is the 
Messiah, the promised King of Israel. 

Verses 22-31. The feast of dedication is mentioned only 
in this passage; nowhere else do we read of it. It is not a 
feast appointed by Jehovah, but a feast of commemoration 
of the cleansing of the temple after the defilement by An- 
tiochus Epiphanes, and was first appointed by Judas Mac- 
cabaeus in the second century before Christ (see 1 Mac. 
1v:52-59). It is known today as the feast of Chanukah, a 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 187 


feast of joy and gladness. While they were making glad 
on account of the past deliverance, the Lord of Glory, who 
dwelt in visible glory in the tabernacle and in the Solomonic 
temple, was in their midst, uttering these words of eternal 
life, and they knew Him not. 

The place where our Lord walked was in the outer court, 
a part of which was a kind of a colonnade, where teachers 
and rabbis often met, to debate on religious questions. 
Then a company of Jews, probably Pharisees, approached 
Him. Perhaps some time had elapsed, when they had 
become divided on account of Him. During this interval 
they probably decided to put a question to Him. ‘“‘How 
long dost Thou make us to doubt? If Thou be the Christ, 
tell us plainly.” They were undecided, in a state of sus- 
pense; they were uneasy. They demanded that He show 
Himself “‘plainly,” which in this case means ‘‘openly, with 
all boldness.” ‘They evidently wanted a manifestation 
from His side which corresponded to their carnal expecta- 
tions. 

But He had told them and they had not believed. All 
along, beginning with the fifth chapter in this Gospel, He 
had given this great witness about Himself. Furthermore, 
He had done the great works in the name of His Father, 
and all these works bore witness of Him. In spite of it all 
they were unbelievers and had rejected His own words 
and the witness of the Father. The Lord adds, “But ye 
believe not, because ye are not of My sheep, as I said unto 
you.” That they were not His sheep was evidenced by 
their unbelief. The cause of their unbelief was not some 
kind of an election, which had marked them out before 
they ever were born, to be excluded from the flock the 
Shepherd came to gather; but it was their unbelief which 
was the cause of not becoming His sheep. 

Then once more He speaks of “His sheep.” The character 
of sheep as illustrating a believer in Christ has often been 
pointed out. Sheep are helpless and much dependent on 
the shepherd; they are harmless, weak and foolish, and more 
than any animal they lose their way and go astray. Such 
we are, every child of God will gladly acknowledge. But we 
are His sheep, for whom He died, and He keeps and guards, 


188 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


protects and shields, feeds and guides His sheep, because 
they are His property. ‘They hear His voice and follow Him. 

Full of comfort to all His sheep are His words of gracious 
assurance. His sheep shall never perish. ‘The eternal life 
they possess is His gift, the gift of His own power; and that 
life is His own life. “They shall in no wise perish”; and 
that for the simple reason “‘no one shall seize them out of 
My hand.” If those who oppose the doctrine of the 
perseverance of the Saints, that a believer, a sheep of Christ, 
can never be lost, would consider that He who uttered these 
words is the omnipotent Lord in Glory, that He not only died 
for His sheep to save them, but that He keeps them by His 
own power, all the unfortunate quibblings of the Arminian 
theology would end forever. That there are powers which 
try to wrest the sheep of Christ from Him, the powers of the 
devil, the flesh and the world, is indicated by the word “pluck” 
or “seize hold on.” Every true sheep of Christ knows this 
and experiences constantly the conflict with these powers. 
But what power is greater, the power of sin, of the devil and 
his demons, of the world, or the power of Him who died, 
who arose, who is exalted far above all principalities and 
powers, who has all power in heaven and on earth? ‘There 
can be but one answer. To say that the power of sin, the 
devil and the world can snatch away a saved believer, who 
received eternal life and the Holy Spirit, so that he is lost, 
is to believe that the power of Christ is insufficient. We 
quote Bishop J. C. Ryle’s helpful words: 

“The doctrine plainly taught in this text may be called 
‘Calvinism’ by some, and by others ‘a dangerous tendency.’ 
The only question we ought to ask is, whether it is Scriptural. 
The simplest answer to this question is, that the words of 
the text, in their plain and obvious meaning, cannot be 
honestly interpreted in any other way. ‘To thrust in, as 
some enemies of perserverance do, the qualifying clause, 
‘they shall never perish so long as they continue My sheep,’ 
is adding to Scripture, and taking unwarrantable liberties 
with the words of Christ.* But let us also note that only 


*Whitby interpreted it: ‘“They shall never perish through any de- 
fect of mine,” though they may fall away by their own fault, is a sad 
instance of unfair handling of Scripture. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 189 


‘His sheep’ shall never perish. The man who boasts that 
he shall never be cast away and never perish, while he is 
living in sin, is a miserable self-deceiver. It is the persever- 
ance of the Saints, and not of sinners and wicked people, 
that is promised here. Doubtless the doctrine of the text 
may be misused and abused, like every other good thing. 
But to the humble believer, who puts his trust in Christ, 
it is one of the most glorious and comfortable truths of the 
Gospel. Weare safe in Christ, we shall never perish; this 
is one thing; but to feel that we are safe is quite another. 
Many true believers who are safe do not realize and feel it.” 
But more than that, we are not only His sheep, but we are the 
gift of the Father to the Son, and the Father is greater than 
all. To believe that the sheep of Christ, given to Him by 
the Father, can be plucked out of the Father’s hand, is 
miserable unbelief. 

“* ‘My Father who hath given to Me is greater than all, 
and no one is able to seize out of the hand of My Father. 
I and the Father are one.’ Here we rise to that height 
of holy love and infinite power, of which no one could speak 
but the Son; and He speaks of the secrets of the Godhead 
with the intimate familiarity proper to the Only Begotten 
who is in the bosom of the Father. He needed none to tes- 
tify of man, for He knew what was in man, being Himself 
God; and He knew what was in God for the self-same 
reason. Heaven or earth, time or eternity, make no differ- 
ence. Not a creature is unapparent before Him, but all 
things are naked and bare in His eyes. And He declares 
that the Father, who had made the gift, resists all that can 
threaten harm, and as He has given to Christ, so He is 
greater than all, and none can seize out of His hand. Indeed 
the Father and the Son are one, not one Person, but one 
thing, one Divine nature or essence. The lowliest of men, 
the Shepherd of the sheep, is the Son of the Father, the true 
God and the eternal life. And He and the Father are not 
more truly one in Divine essence than in the fellowship of 
Divine love for the sheep.”* 

“I and the Father are one.’”? This one matchless state- 


*Wm. Kelly. 


190 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


ment silences forever Arianism, Unitarianism, Russellism 
and other perverters of the essential Deity of our Lord. 
Then for the third time the Jews took up stones to stone 
Him. As Augustinus remarks on this incident: ‘‘Behold 
the Jews understood what the Arians do not understand.” 
And another ancient commentator declares: ““These stones 
cry out against the Unitarian.” 

Verses 32-42. ‘The third time they had tried to stone Him. 
Many hands had reached down to the ground and picked up a 
convenient stone; they were ready to stone Him. Behind 
this new attempt stood the murderer from the beginning, 
Satan. All along for 4,000 years this fallen being had tried 
to frustrate God’s plan in redemption, and, knowing that 
these purposes of redemption centered in the promised 
Redeemer, the Son of God, Satan aimed at Him. Beginning 
with the first fratricide when Cain slew Abel, to the cold- 
blooded murder of the little boys in Bethlehem, when the 
promised child had been born, he attempted to make im- 
possible the work of redemption. Yet he failed continually. 
And here Satan made another attempt. Yet they were 
unable to cast a single stone. Surrounded by the howling 
mob which cried “‘Stone Him!” as they cried later “‘Crucify 
Him!”, He is the picture of majestic calmness. He re- 
bukes them. He appeals to the great works, the miracles 
of divine power He had done. ‘These were the evidences 
of His Messiahship. They showed that He is God, one 
with the Father. Was there anything in these works He 
had shown them from His Father, which required such an 
action which they were about to execute when they picked 
up stones? ‘“‘For which of these works do ye stone Me?” 
But they were ready with an answer. The logic of His 
words was at once recognized by these shrewd assassins. 

“The Jews answered Him, saying, For a good work we 
stone Thee not; but for blasphemy, and that Thou, being 
a man, makest Thyself God.’ ‘Thus they had to bear once 
more a witness that all His works were good, that what He 
did was not evil, but good and righteous. What galled 
them was His repeated witness that He is God, one with the 
Father. They had not forgotten what His lips had spoken 
when the lame man had been healed by Him, when they 


THE’ GOSPEL) OF 'JOHN 191 


realized that He claimed God as His Father, thus making 
Himself equal with God (John v:18). It shows clearly 
that the Jews in our Lord’s time attached a much higher 
and deeper sense to our Lord’s frequently used language 
about God being His Father than modern readers are apt 
to do. In fact they regarded it as nothing less than a claim 
to equality with God. Modern Arians and Socinians (that 
is, Unitarians, Christian Scientists and the Russellites), who 
profess to see nothing in our Lord’s sonship but a higher 
degree of that relationship which exists between all be- 
lievers and God, would do well to mark this verse. What 
they say they cannot see, the Jews, who hated Christ, did 
see. “That ‘contemporaneous exposition,’ to use a legal 
phrase, of our Lord’s words, deserves great respect, and 
carries with it great weight and authority. As a man, our 
Lord was a Jew, educated and trained among Jews. Com- 
mon sense points out, that the Jews, who lived in His time, 
were more likely to put correct sense on His words than 
he modern deniers of His Deity.’’* 

Their answer charging Him with blasphemy contains the 
claim that they stood up in honor for God, and that they 
defended Him against this man. If this were true, God, 
because He is righteous, would have had to reward them for 
their holy zeal in rejecting a blasphemer. But instead of 
receiving a reward after they had rejected the Lord Jesus 
and delivered Him into the hands of the Gentiles, God had 
their city burned, the temple, of which they boasted, de- 
stroyed, and the whole nation was dispersed among all 
nations. ‘The subsequent history of the Jewish people, a 
history of blood and tears, is a witness that He whom they 
hated without a cause, whose works they saw, whose words 
they heard, was and is the Son of God, one with the Father, 
and not a blasphemer. Every generation of Jews since that 
day when they condemned the Lord of Glory, sharing by 
unbelief in this rejection, has borne witness through suf- 
ferings untold, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 

He answers the awful charge by the Scriptures. In the 
eighty-second Psalm is a little statement, which He in His 


*Expository Thoughts on John. 


192 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


infinite wisdom selects to show them their fatal error. They 
had said, “Thou being a Man makest Thyself God.” In 
that Psalm it is written, “I said ye are gods.” Asaph, who 
penned these words by the Spirit of God, speaks of those 
whom God had put in places of authority among His people, 
such as kings, priests and rulers, as being gods. The same 
fact is stated in Exod. vii:1: ‘‘“And the Lord said unto Moses. 
See I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.” He was to act 
in the place of God towards the Egyptian king. Kings, 
judges and rulers derive their power from God and act thus 
under His authority; therefore they are called ‘“‘gods.” 
Then the Lord applied this brief Scripture statement: “If 
he called them gods, unto. whom the Word of God came, 
and the Scripture cannot be broken; say ye of Him whom the 
Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou 
blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?” The 
writer of the Psalm by the Spirit of God called others gods, 
to whom the Word of God came, that is, who were com- 
missioned by God to act in rulership, why, then, did they 
call Him, whom the Father had set apart and appointed 
and finally sent into the world, a blasphemer, because He 
claimed to be the Son of God? ‘The argument is perfect. 
Nor must we overlook that brief statement, ‘‘the Scripture 
cannot be broken.”’ He thus bears witness to the inspiration 
and authority of every word in the original text of the Bible. 
Every word is of God and it cannot be set aside. 

Again He appeals to His works. If they were not the 
works of the Father, they should not believe Him. But all 
His works were of the Father, of which they must have 
been convinced. And if He does the works of the Father, 
though they believed not His words, they ought to believe 
the evidence of His works and thereby believe that the 
Father must be in Him and He in the Father. But this 
plain statement following His great argument only stirred 
up their Satanic hatred and opposition. A great tumult 
must have followed. Perhaps many hands were stretched 
out to catch Him, to lay hold on Him, to arrest Him and 
through murder make an end of His ministry. “But He 
escaped out of their hand.” ‘This was done in a miraculous 
way; no other explanation is possible. Here is the seeth- 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 193 


ing mob, Satanically energized, ready to tear Him to pieces. 
They rush upon Him, but suddenly He is gone. We do 
not know how the escape was effected. He may have 
become invisible; or their eyes may have been suddenly 
blinded. How it was we do not know; but it was a miracle, 
and demonstarated once more the fact that His life could 
not be touched; He alone had the power to lay it down and 
to take it again. Once more it is true, “His hour had not 
yet come.” 

He is seen next beyond Jordan in the place where John 
had first baptized. There He abode. It was at this place 
where He began His blessed ministry about three years 
ago (John i:28). There He had been proclaimed by the 
lips which were silent now, as the Lamb of God. And as 
His ministry was about to end He returned to the same 
place. There He abode awaiting now the time when He 
would offer Himself as the Lamb of God. 

A great gathering then took place—‘‘many resorted unto 
Him.” They remembered John the Baptist. They remem- 
bered well the words which the great herald of the King had 
spoken. He himself did no miracles. But while John 
worked no miracles, what he had spoken about Him, who 
had gone into Jordan to be baptized, had become true. The 
result was “‘that many believed on Him there.” How they 
believed, whether only convinced in their minds that He 
is the Messiah, or whether they believed on Him as the Son 
of God and as Saviour, no one can tell. Perhaps the many 
who resorted to Him and believed on Him, belonged to those 
who on the day of Pentecost were saved. 


CHAPTER XI 


Verses 1-6. Another great chapter, one of the greatest in 
the four Gospels, is now before us. The miracle it records is 
nowhere else given. What is written in connection with it 
reveals Him, who had borne such a great witness concerning 
Himself, in all His glory. Here we find the fullest demon- 
stration of His Divine power as well as of His loving sym- 
pathy. His heart of love, the love which passeth, knowledge, 


194 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


is blessedly revealed in the record of this chapter. He had 
claimed the same power with the Father to raise the dead, 
and now He manifests that power. While on the one hand 
He is seen as God in raising Lazarus from the dead, on the 
other hand we see Him as very Man, for He wept. The 
great miracle is introduced here by the Spirit of God to 
supply the incontrovertible proof that all He had spoken 
concerning Himself is true, and to give to the Jews the 
evidence that He is the Messiah, the Son of God. 

The sickness of Lazarus of Bethany is at once mentioned 
in the opening verse. Lazarus was the brother of Mary and 
Martha of Bethany, and he is introduced here for the first 
time. His name is the same as the Hebrew name Eleazer, 
which means ‘‘God is help.” Different guesses have been 
made as to his identity, but we know nothing beyond what 
is stated of him in this chapter. That he was well to do and 
widely known may be learned from the large number of 
Jews who attended his funeral, who had come to mourn for 
him and were subsequently the witnesses of his resurrec- 
tion. 

Lazarus was sick. The Lord loved Lazarus, yet He who 
is omnipotent permitted him to be sick. In our own days 
men and women who pose as healers make the strange 
assertion that sickness among the children of God is an 
evidence of their disobedience, or their sins, and, therefore, 
something by which the Lord expresses His displeasure. 
They say that a believer who is sick must have done some- 
thing which is wrong and that bodily sickness is the result 
of it. All these strange theories are disproven by Scripture. 
The Lord loved Lazarus, and with all His love He did not 
prevent his illness. 

Beautiful is the action and the example of the two be- 
lieving sisters, Mary and Martha. They sent a messenger 
to Him with the message, “Lord, behold, he whom Thou 
lovest is sick.””. They turned at once to the Lord to acquaint 
Him with what had befallen the beloved brother. No 
doubt they had a physician, too, and used means, but im- 
mediately they dispatched the messenger. ‘This is still our 
great privilege, to go to the Lord first in case of sickness and 
other troubles, Wecan do what Hezekiah did when he went 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 195 


into the house of the Lord and spread Sennacherib’s letter 
before the Lord (2 Kings xix:14). 

And the message they sent was not a demand, not a prayer 
that Lazarus should be healed at once, as the centurion’s 
servant was healed, by the speaking of a word. How 
different this is from the divine healers who ‘‘demand” and 
who think that ‘‘demanding”’ is real faith. It was the highest 
faith when the two sisters thus turned to the Lord, acquainted 
Him with the fact that Lazarus was sick and then left it in 
His own hands. 

Then the Lord gave the messengers the answer. ‘This 
sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the 
Son of God might be glorified thereby.”” These words of 
our Lord have raised questions. Why did He say that this 
sickness is not unto death, when Lazarus actually died and 
was buried? Why did He not say in plainer words, he will 
die and I shall raise him up from the dead? When our Lord 
said that his sickness was not unto death, He must have 
meant death in its complete form, including the complete 
dissolution of the body, when it returns to dust. This did 
not happen to Lazarus. The second part of this verse 
anticipates Lazarus’s death, for by his resurrection the Son 
of God was glorified. 

Then His love for Martha and her sister is stated. Atten- 
tion must be called to the fact of how the Spirit of God guards 
this statement in the original text. In the third verse we 
read the word “love” in connection with the brother of the 
sisters. [The word used in verse 3 is expressive of love as 
the supreme affection, the same word which is used in 
John 11:16. But here the word “love” is a different one, 
inferior to its meaning as the word used in the third verse. 

But how strange that after the information of the sickness 
of Lazarus was imparted unto Him, that He abode two days 
in the same place where He was! Of course the omniscient 
One knew what would happen. He knew what great work 
He was to accomplish, that Lazarus would die. Well, said 
Chrysostom in his comment, ‘“‘Christ tarried that none 
might be able to assert that He restored Lazarus when not 
yet dead, saying it was lethargy, a fainting, a fit, but not 
death. He therefore tarried so long that corruption began.” 


196 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


But what soul agony the sisters must have passed through 
when He did not come at once! They saw their beloved 
brother getting weaker and weaker and finally he passed 
away. It was a supreme test of faith. Perhaps they re- 
membered Job’s word “though He slay me yet will I trust.” 
What perplexity theirs must have been! Yet they trusted. 
How beautifully they met it all will be seen later when we 
read the words of Martha when she met Him. 

Verses 7-16. Then He told His disciples, when the two 
days were gone, that He would go back to Judea. ‘They were 
astonished and could hardly believe that He would return to 
Judea, where the Jews had threatened to stone Him. He 
answered their objections and fears. His working hours had 
not yet expired. ‘They could not touch His life. His hour 
had not yet come, hence there was no possibility that they 
could kill Him. As a man walking in the daylight stum- 
bleth not, because in the sunlight he sees the road before 
himself, so He walked in certainty. 

Then He gave them an exhibition of His omniscience. 
“Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake 
him out of sleep.”” He spoke thus, because He knew that 
Lazarus had died. Death is a sleep out of which there comes 
an awakening. Well has it been said by a commentator, 
“Sleeping, in the sense of dying, is only applied to men, 
because of the hope of resurrection. We read no such thing 
of brutes.”’ And He called Lazarus ‘“‘friend’’; though he 
had passed away, Lazarus was still the friend of Christ. 

The disciples understood not what He meant. They 
thought of the natural sleep and supposed it would be a sign 
of his recovery. And if he is getting well, why should we go 
at allinto Judea?) This probably was in their minds. Then 
the Lord spoke in plain words, ‘“‘Lazarus is dead.” 

If the Lord had been in Bethany when Lazarus was ill, He 
would have porbably healed him at once. Therefore the 
Lord was glad for the sake of the disciples that He was not 
there to prevent the death of His friend, for now they were 
to witness the greatest of all His miracles, for the confirmation 
of their faith in Him. Then He told them, “but let us go 
unto him.” 

It has been suggested, on account of the words of Thomas 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 197 


which follow, that the disciples surmised, because He said, 
“let us go to him,” that He meant He wanted to die, to 
be with Lazarus. But this is a far-fetched suggestion. 
When Thomas said, “‘Let us also go, that we may die with 
Him,” he expressed his fear that if the Lord returned to 
Judea He would surely be killed. While much has been 
said and written about ‘‘doubting Thomas,” here we behold 
the fact that his heart was greatly attached to the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and he expresses the desire to die with Him. 

Verses 17-29. Some one has said ‘“There is a grand 
simplicity about this passage, which may almost be spoiled 
by human exposition. ‘To comment on it seems like gilding 
gold, or painting lilies.” We shall follow the story in all its 
majestic simplicity, asking His gracious guidance to write 
something which will be a help in grasping the many spiritual 
lessons. The Lord Jesus arrived in Bethany with His 
disciples, and He found that His friend Lazarus had been 
put aside into the tomb; he had lain in the grave already 
four days. He knew, of course, that Lazarus had been put 
into the grave. He knew all that had taken place. He knew 
what He would do. Therefore He could afford to take His 
time and wait with His arrival, until there could be no 
question about the actual death of Lazarus. ‘Thus the sup- 
position, so commonly used by infidels, that Lazarus was 
in a trance, is completely silenced. But the infidels in the 
camp of Christendom go a step further and claim that the 
miracle never happened at all. 

The news that Lazarus had died and been buried, probably 
the same day he passed away, had brought many Jews to 
Bethany. ‘They came to comfort the two sisters. Lazarus 
must have been well known; Simon the leper, who was prob- 
ably the father of Lazarus and his sisters (Matthew xxvi:6) 
may have been a rich and influential man. ‘That he is not 
mentioned in this chapter denotes that he must have died. 
Besides a great company of Jews from the surrounding 
country and Jerusalem, there were present the professional 
mourners (Mark v:38) to carry out what the rabbinical 
laws demanded at such occasions. All this was ordered by 
the Lord. The great gathered company was there to sym- 
pathize with the mourning sisters, to do what Jewish eti- 


198 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


quette demanded; but the Lord had brought them there in 
His providence that they might be the witnesses to the 
great miracle He was about to perform. It is not im- 
probable that many of the Jews who came to Bethany had 
heard our Lord when in His great testimony He claimed to 
have the power to raise the dead (John v). 

The news that “‘the Prophet of Nazareth,” as many called 
Him, had arrived with His disciples, must have created a 
big commotion. ‘The good news that He had come reached 
the home where the sisters were, surrounded by the mourning 
friends. Both sisters heard that ‘Jesus is coming” and at 
once the characteristic temperament of the two is manifested. 
Here we must consult Luke x:28-43. In this passage we see 
the Lord entering Bethany, and the record tells us ““Martha 
received Him into her house.” No sooner had the divine 
guest entered but Mary sat at His feet to drink in His words 
of life. While Martha was distracted with much serving, 
running hither and thither in preparing for the comfort of 
the wonderful visitor, Mary let Him serve her by His 
gracious ministry. And when Martha ventured to rebuke 
her sister, when she even suggested that the Lord did not 
care, He answered her saying, ‘“Martha, Martha, thou art 
careful and troubled about many things; but there is need 
of one, and Mary has chosen the good part, the which shall 
not be taken from her.” Here Martha shows the same 
characteristic. She is the same active, hurrying, impatient 
Martha, rushing forth at once tomeet Him. Mary sat still 
in the house. No doubt she sat there in quiet meditation, 
thinking of Him, knowing that soon He would be in her 
presence. What sorrow, anxiety and trial of faith must 
have exercised the two sisters during the days their beloved 
brother had been laid aside. And Martha, so anxious, may 
have had the thought once more—‘“‘Lord, dost Thou not 
care?”; while Mary in confidence must have felt in her soul, 
“He does all things well.” 

Martha may have gone to the outskirts of Bethany to 
meet Him. Martha, however, was not the loser by going at 
once to Him, for she heard wonderful words from His 
gracious lips. Mary by sitting still in the house missed 
His words and the great comfort He imparted to Martha. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 199 


The words with which Martha greeted the Lord expressed 
her faith as well as her great disappointment. “Lord, if 
Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” What 
a marvelous statement! She knew Him as the Lord of life 
and power, the great Jehovah. She knew that in His 
presence death had to flee away. And when today God’s 
Saints fall asleep, we too can say, ‘‘Lord, if Thou hadst 
been here, my brother would not have died.”” Some blessed 
day when He comes again, when His shout will gather the 
Saints together, to meet Him in the air, there will be no 
death for His own who live. “Behold I show you a mystery, 
we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, 
in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians xv:51). 

Her words have in them faith, disappointment and a sug- 
gestion of reproach, as if she meant, if thou hadst only come 
sooner, my brother would still be here. Her faith is trium- 
phant; her doubts and her reproach give way to perfect con- 
fidence in Him. “But I know—not I hope—that even now, 
now when my brother has lain four days in the grave, whatso- 
ever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee.” Like 
Abraham, in this hour of extremity and human impossibility, 
“against hope, believed in hope” (Romans iv:18) she also 
hoped in Him, who has the power to raise the dead. 

But at the same time, swept by different emotions 
she lowered His dignity. Through her tears she did not 
see Him clearly, whom she addresses as Lord. Her words 
mean that she looked upon Him as destitute of inde- 
pendent power, as if He needed to get the insurance of 
the power of God by prayer. Yet He had clearly taught 
that the Father’s power is His power (John v:21). 
And He answers her at once with a definite promise— 
“Thy brother shall rise again.” But did Martha realize 
what He meant? His disciples, if they heard these words 
spoken must have understood what He meant, for He 
had told them, ‘“‘I go that I may wake him out of sleep.” 
Her answer shows that she did not think of an immediate 
resurrection. She expressed her faith, and that faith was 
according to her knowledge in believing the Old Testament 
Scriptures. ‘I know that he shall rise again in the resurrec- 
tion at the last day.” The orthodox Jews believe that all 


200 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


the dead go to Sheol and there await the coming of the 
Messiah, who would call the righteous dead and bring them 
back, while the wicked dead would be thrust back into Sheol 
again. Evidently her answer expresses disappointment. 
The last day for her was a far-away event; it seemed to 
have little comfort for her in the present sorrow. 

There came from the lips of the Son of God the never-to- 
be forgotten words, words which have been for all genera- 
tions of Christians, for a countless multitude, the words of 
hope, comfort, peace and glorious assurance. “I am the 
resurrection and the life, he that believeth in Me, though 
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth, and 
believeth in me shall never die.” 

Who is able to comment on these blessed words in a 
satisfactory way. Like all the words of eternal life which 
came from Him, these words are inexhaustible. He speaks 
of Himself as the resurrection and the life. Let us note that He 
puts resurrection before life. ‘True He is the life as He is the 
light of men (See John i). When He puts resurrection first 
it must have been in anticipation of His death. He speaks 
once more of Himself as the “I Am,” the Jehovah. Well it 
is to put alongside of His words here, the words which He 
spoke to John in the Isle of Patmos, “Fear not! I am the 
first and the last; I am He that liveth, and was dead, and, 
behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys 
of hades and of death” (Revelation i:18). Iam the resurrec- 
tion and the life! No prophet before Him, though some of 
them raised the dead, spoke like this. No prophet could 
even have conceived such a statement. It is unique and 
one of the strongest arguments for the Deity of our Lord. 
He who spoke these words is the eternal Jehovah, the source 
and spring of all life. And He passed through death, as 
He said to John, “‘and was dead’’; thus the power of death 
was annulled ‘and He is the resurrection and the life for all 
who believe in Him. 

Some have explained the words “‘he that believeth on Me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live,”’ as meaning the same 
as John v:26, that is the spiritually dead. While it is per- 
fectly true that the spiritually dead, hearing His voice and 
believing on Him live, in this passage it cannot possibly 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 201 


mean the dead sinners, but it means the physically dead. 
Those who have believed on Him have life; they are one 
with Him. If the believer lays down his body, like Lazarus 
did, he shall live, as surely as He liveth who died for our 
sins and conquered death and the grave. And when our 
Lord adds, “And whosever liveth and believeth on Me 
shall never die”? He gives assurance that for those who be- 
lieve on Him and live in that coming day, when the righteous 
dead shall hear in their graves the voice of the Son of God, 
that the living believers will not see death. The great 
statement of our Lord at this occasion is an anticipation 
of the fuller revelation which He gave to the Apostle Paul, 
when he penned his first epistle. ‘“‘For the Lord Himself 
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the 
Archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in 
Christ shall rise first. ‘Then we which are alive and remain 
shall be caught up together with them in clouds, to meet the 
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord” 
(1 Thessalonians iv:16-17). 

Here in John xi:25, 26 we have the two classes likewise. 
Those who have died in Him and who will be raised 
from among the dead; and those who remain till He \ 
comes and who will be exempt from physical death. In| 
that glorious day of His coming, the truth that He is 
the resurrection and the life will be fully demonstrated. 
The Lord asked Martha, | ‘“Believest thou this?’ Her 
answer was one of faith, though she did not, and could not 
fully understand the words He had spoken to her. “Yea 
Lord, I believe (more literally: I have believed and do 
believe) that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which 
should come into the world.” It is as great, if not greater, 
than Peter’s confession of Him. She believed that He is 
the promised Messiah, the Son of David; that He is the Son 
of God and that He came into the world, to be the Redeemer, 
the Saviour-King. 

Then she thought of her sister. ‘The message she whispered 
to Mary was that He had come and called for her. Mary 
then arose quickly. It was the Lord’s call which stirred her 
at once and she came to Him. 

Verses 30-37. We learn next that all that had taken place 


202 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


between the Lord and Martha happened outside of the 
Bethany village. When Mary so suddenly arose, the Jews 
which were also in the house with her, to comfort her, thought 
she was going to the grave to weep there, and the whole 
company followed her outside. Evidently they did not hear 
Martha’s message to Mary, for it was given to her secretly. 
They followed Mary; but they were to meet another to be the 
witnesses of His power and glory. 

Then followed the meeting. As soon as Mary saw Him 
she fell down at His feet; her sister had not done so. Three 
times we see Mary at the feet of the Lord Jesus. She sat 
at His feet and listened to His words; in this she owned Him 
as Prophet. Here she falls at His feet craving His sympathy; 
she acknowledged Him as Priest. Once more we see her at 
His feet when she anointed Him; she did it for His burial 
(xii:3-7). And falling at His feet, as she did here, in the 
presence of the company of Jews, was a testimony for the 
Lord Jesus Christ; she acknowledged Him openly as her 
Lord in this act of worship. Mary then repeated the same 
words which Martha had addressed to Him, but she does 
not say all Martha had spoken. She said, “Lord, if Thou 
hadst been here my brother would not have died”’ and then 
she stopped. Perhaps her voice was choked with tears; she 
could not utter another word. Martha had not wept at 
His feet. And when Mary was weeping, the accompanying 
Jews were so touched by her grief, that they also wept. The 
word used here for “weeping” has the meaning of ‘“‘loud 
lamenting.”? When later the weeping of our Lord is recorded 
an entirely different word is used. 

Then our Lord became deeply stirred as He looked upon 
the lamenting sister, and the Jews who wailed with her. He 
is touched with the feeling of their sorrow and infirmity, 
thus revealing His true humanity. He was greatly agitated, 
so that He groaned in spirit; His whole soul was moved 
in compassion and was troubled, or, as the marginal reading 
gives it, ““He troubled Himself.”? Perhaps the latter was 
the outward expression in His face of the inward emotion, 
which gave way to His blessed tears. 

‘Let us carefully remark that our Lord never changes. 
He did not leave behind Him His human nature when He 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 203 


ascended up into heaven. At this moment at God’s right 
hand, He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, 
and can understand tears as well as ever. Our great High- 
priest is the very friend that our souls need, able to save as 
God, able to feel as man. To talk of the Virgin Mary 
feeling for sinners more than Jesus is to utter that which is 
ignorant and blasphemous. ‘To teach that we can need any 
other priest, when Jesus is such a feeling Saviour, is to teach 
what is senseless and absurd.’’* 

Then the Lord asked them, ‘‘Where have ye laid him?” 
They said unto Him, ‘‘Lord, come and see!’ But the 
question our Lord asked was not to gain information as to 
the location of the grave. As Quesnel states, “Christ does 
not ask out of ignorance, any more than God did when He 
said, ‘Adam where art thou?’”’ Those who answered Him 
must have been believers for they addressed Him as Lord; 
perhaps Mary and Martha spoke these words, “‘Lord, come 
and see.”” ‘Then His tears could not be restrained any longer. 
“Jesus wept.”” What a wonderful sentence this is! It shows 
once more the real humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. As 
stated before, the word for weeping is a different one than 
that used in connection with Mary and the Jews. The word 
here (dakruo) means a silent weeping, the shedding of tears. 
The former word (f/aio) the loud lamenting, is the one 
employed to describe the weeping of Christ over Jerusalem, 
when He beheld the city (Luke xix:41). Then He lamented 
loudly; here as He approached the grave of Lazarus He 
wept silently. The weeping over Jerusalem was the public 
lamentation of a prophet; the weeping here was the expres- 
sion of deepest sympathy with the sorrowful affliction of 
His friends. Let us remember once more that He is still the 
same loving, sympathizing Lord. ‘‘For we have not a 
high priest not able to sympathize with our infirmities, but 
was tempted in all things in like manner, apart from sin” 
(Hebrews iv:15, correct translation). 

The Jews said, ‘“‘Behold how He loved him!’ while others 
said, “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the 
blind, have caused that even this man should not have died ?”’ 





*Bishop Ryle. 


204 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


They were touched with His loving sympathy. But even 
here they sneer at Him. ‘They remember the blind man He 
had healed in Jerusalem. Why then, they say sarcastically, 
did He not prevent this man from dying? 

Verses 38-46. ‘Then once more He groaned in Himself as 
He came to the grave, which was a cave closed up with a 
stone. ‘This cave was a kind of a horizontal chamber hewn in 
arock. ‘These burial places used by the Jews were sometimes 
natural caves (See Genesis xxiil:9); others were artificially 
hollowed out from a rock (Isaiah xxii:16; Matthew xxvii:60), 
in a garden (John xix:41) or in some field (Genesis xxxv; 
1 Kings 11:34). 

What a moment it must have been when He commanded 
“Take ye away the stone!” He could have spoken the word 
and by His omnipotent power the stone would have rolled 
away, like the stone which sealed His own grave. But He 
said, ‘“Take ye away the stone.” ‘This command impressed 
the assembled witnesses with the reality and truth of this 
great miracle about to be performed. ‘They knew in this 
cave four days ago the body of Lazarus was laid. ‘There his 
body.rests. Perhaps some of the men had assisted in putting 
the stone over the mouth of the cave. And now they were 
to open the tomb. What witnesses they made to attest the 
miracle which had been performed! 

Then we hear the voice of unbelief. Martha said unto 
Him, “‘Lord, by this time he stinketh; for he has been dead 
four days.” Yet while she spoke this she confirmed the 
indisputable fact of the death of her brother Lazarus. She 
would never have spoken like this if she had not been fully 
convinced that her brother had died. Perhaps he expired 
in her arms. Her unbelieving utterance was used as a link 
in the chain of evidence which makes the miracle of Lazarus’s 
resurrection unimpeachable. ‘There could be no deception. 
Martha had not the remotest thought of what the Lord was 
abouttodo. She did not think, nor expect, thatthe Lord would 
raise him from the dead. Some infidels have suggested that 
the whole incident can be explained by selfedeception, if not 
by imposture, but Martha’s words make these infidels’ claims 
look ridiculous. When she said “he stinketh” she referred 
to that which was perfectly natural and true, for a dead 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 205 


body in a tropical climate becomes the subject of decom- 
position in a very short time. There can be no question that 
the stench of corruption came from the cave, when the stone 
was removed. Martha knew it and she shrank from having 
the stone taken away, for she did not believe that the Lord 
could bring her brother back to life out of such a state. She 
did not remember that He who commanded ‘“‘take ye away 
the stone” was the omnipotent Lord, the creator of all 
things, who has the power over life and death, with whom 
there is nothing impossible. In the traditional belief of 
orthodox Jews is held a theory which may shed light on the 
four days; why the Lord permitted Lazarus to remain buried 
not for three days, but four days. The tradition asserts the 
following: after a person dies, the spirit of the dead person 
lingers about the burial place, waiting to see if there might 
be a chance to return to the body. But when the countenance 
changes, and the signs of decomposition appear, then the 
spirit disappears and goes to its place. ‘Therefore orthodox 
Jews did not certify the actuality of death till three days were 
gone, for they said then the countenance changes and after 
the third day the spirit of the deceased leaves the sepulchre 
and there in no hope of the dead coming back to life. Now 
this is a tradition only, but if it was held by the Jews in the 
days of our Lord, as it probably was, it may explain the 
reason why Lazarus was not raised on the third day, but on 
the fourth. 

And He answered her unbelieving words in a gracious 
manner. ‘Said I not unto thee, if thou wouldest believe, 
that thou shouldest see the glory of God?’ He must have 
referred to the message which He had sent to the sisters 
before He came (see Verse 4). He tells her that if she would 
believe she would see the glory of God. But with the Jew 
it has always been seeing first and after seeing believing 
(John xx:29). It is faith in Him which makes possible the 
manifestation of the glory of God. We doubt not that 
His gracious word kindled that faith in her and she believed, 
so that the mist of unbelief and uncertainty was scattered. 

The command He gave is obeyed. Obedience to it had 
been delayed by Martha’s unbelieving interruption; but 
His answer was the signal to the men who had started to 


206 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


remove the stone to finish the task. The mouth of the cave 
is uncovered. Looking in they all must have seen the corpse 
in its grave-clothes. What a wonderful moment it must 
have been! No painter could ever picture this great scene; 
no pen is able to describe the agitation, the emotions and the 
thrill of all these eye witnesses. Here He stands in blessed, 
undisturbed calmness. Perhaps on either side were the two 
sisters, both looking, not towards the mouth of the cave, but 
they must have looked into His face. There was no more 
doubt in their faces. They believed. A little further back 
the many Jews; their faces must have revealed intense 
expectation, curiosity and astonishment. 

A few moments of silence and then we hear His voice. 
His eyes were lifted up to heaven and He said, ‘‘Father, I 
thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. And I know that 
Thou hearest me always; but because of the people which 
stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast 
sent me.” All along in His self-witness as recorded in this 
Gospel, He spoke of His oneness with the Father and that 
the Father had sent Him. Once more He bears witness to 
the fact in the presence of those who had heard Him speak 
such words before. He addresses the unseen One, whom 
He knows and sees, Father. What He speaks in their hear- 
ing is for the sake of the assembled company “‘that they may 
believe that Thou hast sent me.”” His words begin not with 
a petition, as prophets do, but with giving thanks. One 
would have expected prayer for the manifestation of God’s 
power at this thrilling moment. “Father, I thank Thee 
that Thou has heard me.”’ It has been suggested that He 
must have prayed to the Father since He knew that Lazarus 
had died. But this can hardly be the right view. The next 
sentence gives us the true meaning. “I know that Thou 
hearest me always.” Here is His assurance, knowing as He 
did beforehand, that He has already what He would ask. He 
knew His prayer was answered before it ever was uttered. 
Chrysostom said on this passage, ‘‘Who ever prayed in this 
manner? Before uttering any prayer, He said, I thank Thee, 
showing that He needed not prayer.’”’ And because His 
request was granted before it was made, He gave thanks 
unto the Father. It shows forth again His oneness with the 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 207 


Father. And He expressed Himself thus publicly for those 
who surrounded Him, so that they might be convinced and 
believe, that He acted with the Father and never without 
Him, even as He had said, ‘“The Son can do nothing of Him- 
self, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever 
He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise’? (v:19). His 
words spoken in their presence were an evidence that He is 
the Christ, the One whom the Father had sent, and who 
was about to do what the Father doeth—‘‘For as the Father 
raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the 
Son quickeneth whom He will.” 

Then came the supreme moment. He cried with a loud 
voice, ‘‘Lazarus come forth!” What a shout it must have 
been! And the loud voice which was heard here before the 
open tomb in which Lazarus’s body rested, will be heard 
again. Again He will speak with the commanding shout, 
another majestic “Come forth.” For the Lord Himself 
shall descend out of heaven with a shout (I Thess. iv:16). 
Then the graves of the dead in Christ will be opened; cor- 
ruption will put on incorruption; and we, the living ones, 
shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye; 
this mortal will put on immortality. The loud cry “Come 
forth” was the word of omnipotent power. 

And how the many eyes of all must have been riveted on 
the opening of the cave! How they must have been almost 
breathless as that loud voice reached their ears! What a 
hush of expectation! And all at once out of the darkness of 
the cave there looms up the white figure. Slowly that 
figure moves towards the entrance, and now every eye sees 
that it is Lazarus. ‘“‘He that was dead came forth!” En- 
cumbered by the grave-clothes, Lazarus, brought back to 
life, was tottering towards the daylight. He comes forth, 
the mighty witness to the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, a 
witness to all the Lord Jesus Christ had spoken, the attesting 
seal that His Word is true. Here is the witness to the great- 
ness of His power; the power over death. But Lazarus came 
forth “bound hand and foot with the grave-clothes, and his 
face was bound about witha napkin. Jesus saith unto them, 
Loose him and let him go.” There is no difficulty here, 
as some have imagined. They say, “how could Lazarus 


208 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


have come forth out of the grave, if hands and feet were 
bound by a winding sheet of linen?” But the custom of 
the Jews was to wrap the dead comparatively loosely in the 
linen sheet. Around the jaw, to prevent the falling of the 
lower jaw, was tightly bound a napkin. ‘These grave-clothes 
and the napkin also bore their witness that Lazarus had 
actually died. And there he stood in the portal of the cave. 
Life had been given by Him who is the Resurrection and the 
Life. But he needed something else. ~The grave-clothes and 
the napkin had to be removed; he had to be set at liberty, 
so that he could walk about and breathe. He could not do 
it for himself for neither his hands nor his feet were free. 
He might have spoken one word and the hindering objects 
would have dropped from the body of Lazarus. He called 
on them to doit. It aroused them from their great astonish- 
ment and for all we know the very men who had wound the 
body of Lazarus in the grave clothes and bound the napkin 
over his face, were the men who now loosed him from the 
bondage. 

The greatest miracle had taken place. All He had 
claimed in His great self-witness (Chapter v) was now 
confirmed; what He spoke is the Truth. But in that great 
chapter He speaks of both, the spiritually dead and the 
physically dead. Both, He tells us, will hear the voice of the 
Son of God. The resurrection of Lazarus therefore has a 
typical meaning; it gives a picture of what the Lord of Life 
does for the spiritually dead. Lazarus dead and buried, in the 
darkness of the grave, in corruption, is a picture of the 
natural man. He is dead in trespasses and sin; he is in 
darkness and all his works are but corruption, filthy rags, 
obnoxious to the holy and righteous God. What man 
needs is life. He cannot give it to himself. He is as helpless 
to raise himself up, as Lazarus was, shut up in the cave. 
Nor can the dead raise the dead. No one in that company 
could do anything for Lazarus; they were as helpless as the 
dead man was in the grave. Only One could give life and 
that is He who is “‘the resurrection and the life.” He spoke 
the word of life, “Come forth!’ Resurrection—life then 
followed at Once. And thus it is with the spiritually dead. 
Those who hear His voice, who believe on Him, receive life 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 209 


through Him and in Him, the resurrection-life, eternal life 
(John v:24). Whenever the spiritual resurrection of a lost 
sinner takes place it is a miracle. 

But Lazurus needed liberty, freedom from the bondage 
of the grave. The unloosing of the grave-clothes was the 
condition of the exercise of the life which had been given to 
him. If the grave-clothes had not been taken away he 
would have sunk back into the tomb. And so the Lord 
Jesus Christ delivers from the grave-clothes, the grave- 
clothes of Judaism, that which is of the law, the insignia of 
death and not of life. Free from the law, is the happy state 
of the sinner who has been quickened and raised up, saved 
by grace. And in Christ the believer has perfect liberty. 
The grave clothes are gone. “Stand fast therefore in the 
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not en- 
tangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians v:1). 
And in that life there is deliverance from more than the bond- 
age of the law, there is deliverance also from the bondage, 
the dominion of sin. In making known this liberty He uses 
His gifts, the teachers of His Word, as He used the men who 
stood at the tomb of Lazarus to loose him, so that he could 
walk in perfect liberty. 

The effect of the great miracle was that many of the Jews 
believed on Him. What else could they do as they beheld 
the startling evidence that He is the Christ, the Son of God. 
Perhaps many of them were among the converts on the day 
of Pentecost. But what about the sisters? We hear nothing 
in the record about them at this occasion. Well can we 
imagine how both of them must have fallen at His feet in 
adoration and worship, while afterward they embraced the 
beloved brother. But His enemies, under satanic blindness, 
went to the then plotting Pharisees to give a report of what 
had taken place. Weadd some remarks on this great miracle 
from “‘Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John.” 

‘‘We should observe that we are not told of anything that 
Lazarus said about his state while in the grave, and nothing 
of his after history. Tradition says that he lived for thirty 
years after, and was never known to smile; but this is prob- 
ably a mere apocryphal invention. As to his silence, we can 
easily see there is a Divine wisdom about it. If St. Paul 


210 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


“could not utter” the things that he saw in the third heaven, 
and called them ‘unspeakable things’; it is not strange that 
Lazarus should say nothing of what he saw in Paradise (2 
Cor. xii:4). But there may be always seen in Scripture a 
striking silence about the feelings of men and women who 
have been the subjects of remarkable Divine interposition. 
God’s ways are not man’s ways. Man loves sensation and 
excitement, and likes to make God’s work on his fellow- 
creatures a gazing-stock and a show, to their great damage. 
God almost always seems to withdraw them from the 
public, both for their own good and His glory. 

“‘We should observe that we are told nothing of the feelings 
of Martha and Mary, after they saw their brother raised to 
life. ‘The veil is drawn over their joy, though it was not over 
their sorrow. Affliction is a more profitable study than 
rejoicing. 

‘“‘We should observe lastly that the raising of Lazarus is 
one of the most signal instances in the Gospels of Christ’s 
Divine power. To Him who could work such a miracle 
nothing is impossible. He can raise from the death of sin 
any dead soul, however far gone and corrupt. He will raise 
us from the grave at His own second appearing. ‘The voice 
which called Lazarus from the tomb is almighty. “The dead 
shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and they that hear 
shall live’ (John v:25).” 

Before we follow the last portion of this great chapter a few 
statements as to the objections and inventions of infidelity 
might be in order. We mention first the worst form of 
infidelity, which goes by the name of “modern Biblical 
scholarship,” the camouflaged title of that system which is 
in the fullest sense of the word “‘destructive,” for it destroys 
everything in the line of true faith. To show what this 
miserable criticism teaches we quote first from an article on 
Lazarus in the Standard Bible Dictionary, written by Pro- 
fessor Samuel Dickey of the McCormick Theological Seminary 
(Presbyterian), of Chicago, Ills. He says the following: 

“The problem is inseparably connected with the larger 
one of the authorship and historicity of the fourth Gospel. 
Those who believe this Gospel to be purely allegorical 
fiction(!) take the story of Lazarus to be a free composition 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 211 


out of elements drawn from the Synoptic Gospels 

It is more usual, however, today to admit that there are 
many trustworthy data underlying the accounts of the 
fourth Gospel, and that it is not to be considered, therefore, 
simply a religious and dogmatic allegory. In that case the 
story of Lazarus may contain trustworthy elements, even 
though it may be difficult to determine just how much 
is due to modification and interpretation of the fact in the 
mind of the Evangelist. Obviously it is very difficult to 
explain the absolute silence of the Synoptic Gospels regarding 
Lazarus, containing reference as they do to the two sisters 
and an anointing in Bethany, even though we freely admit 
the partial character of the sources of these Gospels. Such 
an event with such consequences as are described in the 
fourth Gospel could hardly escape notice. ‘There are also 
certain details in the narrative which, as they stand at least, 
strike us incongruous. Yet, on the other hand, it is perhaps 
more difficult, once the hypothesis of pure allegory is 
abandoned, to psychologically explain the story’s com- 
position as an ideal construction by the Evangelist to illus- 
trate his views of Christ as ‘“‘the resurrection and the life.” 
It is too stupendous for any personal follower of Jesus, at 
least, to have simply invented it. Some historical foundation 
is required, and the underlying facts, whatever they are, may 
therefore belong to that body of trustworthy information 
regarding a ministry of Jesus in Judea which appears to 
have been known to the author of the fourth Gospel alone. 
Assuming this to be true, and that our philosophical attitude 
to the miraculous does not preclude its possibility, the 
resurrection of Lazarus may have occurred, and the words, 
‘J am the resurrection and the life’ have had, therefore, 
more than a spiritual significance.” 

We have put certain words in this article in italics. Herc 
is a Critic who tries to make it appear that he is orthodox. 
He is one of those who occupy the convenient place on the 
fence. But when he writes of the possibility that “the 
resurrection of Lazarus may have occurred’ he shows that 
he has no faith in inspiration. It is the language of doubt 
and uncertainty. A believer in the plenary inspiration of 
the Holy Scriptures does not use such language. 


“ie THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


We quote next from one who is more outspoken, who does 
not grant the possibility that the resurrection of Lazarus 
may have occurred. Before us is the large volume of ““The 
Fourth Gospel in Research and Debate, by Dr. Benjamin 
W. Bacon Buckingham, Professor on New ‘Testament 
Criticism in Yale University.” 

We quote from pages 348 and 349 the following: 

“The Christian world instinctively and rightly turns to 
Jesus’ tender expostulations with Martha’s tears, and with 
the timid suggestion of both sisters that a miracle should be 
wrought to alleviate their individual sorrow, these are among 
the loftiest and purest expressions of Christian faith in face of 
bereavement. But we do injustice to this Cospel when we try 
to force 1t to our demand for the ‘historical.’ It 1s not historical, 
but ‘spiritual.’ The story of the Raising of Lazarus, abso- 
lutely excluded as it 1s by Synoptic tradition, should suffice of 
itself alone to settle this point once for all.” 

Here we have it. The story of Lazarus’s resurrection is 
not historical. All that is written in the eleventh chapter 
of John’s Gospel never occurred. It is an invention of the 
author of the fourth Gospel, whoever he may be. ‘This view 
is now taught in many of the leading theological seminaries, 
like Union, Chicago, Boston, etc. It is infidelity pure and 
simple. ‘The critical statements of these ‘“‘scholars” do not 
reveal “maturity” but “blindness.” If they had just a little 
bit of the knowledge which every child of God possesses, 
the knowledge imparted not by human intelligence, but by 
the Spirit of God, they would not write such foolishness. 
If the Synoptics did not mention the resurrection of Lazarus 
it was thus ordered by the divine Author of their documents, 
the Holy Spirit. He reserved the record of this miracle for 
the pen of the Apostle John, into whose Gospel it properly 
belongs. 

The infidel-critical view then is this. The story was 
created by the writer of the Gospel for the purpose of illus- 
trating the truth that Christ is the resurrection and the life, 
and that it was perhaps developed by him out of some con- 
versation of Jesus, or perhaps out of the story of Lazarus and 
the rich man, possibly out of some incident in the life of 
Lazarus. They even suggest that Nain is an abbreviation of 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN CANS. 


Bethany, and that the narratives of the resurrection of 
Lazarus and the widow’s son have a common origin, etc. 
The denials of Destructive Criticism may be reduced to 
these three propositions: (1) John did not write this account 
at all. (2) The author of the Gospel of John invented the 
story, building it on a very slight foundation. (3) That it 
may be truth that Lazarus had been sick, but that the whole 
story was a fraud perpetrated by Lazarus and the sisters. 
Such is the infidelity in the camp of Christendom today. It 
deserves the most scathing denunciation and every true 
Christian should turn from it with abhorrence. ‘The French 
infidel Renan held the same view as some of the Critics hold, 
perhaps they stole it from him. Renan declared that the 
death of Lazarus was only apparent; that the supposed 
resurrection was a fraud contrived by the friends of Jesus 
in order to give eclat to His anticipated entrance into Jeru- 
salem, and that to this fraud He lent himself, in a moment of 
intense fanatical enthusiasm. 

All these French, German and Theological Seminary in- 
fidels try to dispose of the reality of this miracle. We quote 
a simple, yet masterly answer to all their objections. The 
author of this defense we shall name after the quotation. 

‘The only alternative is belief in the miracle. The evi- 
dence of John’s authorship of the fourth Gospel refutes the 
hypothesis that John did not write the account. The nar- 
rative itself is neither ideal nor dogmatic, neither an artistic 
picture nor a concealed argument. It isa perfectly colorless 
narrative of events concerning which there was no possible 
room for mistake. The writer does not draw from the 
narrative any conclusion; he does not say that any miracle 
was wrought or even that the dead was raised. He simply 
tells his readers what he saw and heard, and leaves them to 
draw their own conclusions. He was with Jesus beyond the 
Jordan; word came to them that Lazarus was sick; Jesus 
remained where He was two days; then He told the disciples 
that Lazarus was dead; when they reached Bethany they 
found a scene of mourning; the friends had come, according 
to Jewish custom, to console the sisters’ family; both sisters 
stated impliedly and reproachfully that Lazarus was dead 
when they arrived at the grave, one of them said that he 


214 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


had been dead four days, and that corruption—though this 
apparently was only her presumption—had already com- 
menced; Christ directed the stone to be taken away, com- 
manded in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus come forth,’ and he came 
fourth bound in his grave-clothes. A scientific commission 
could not have reported the facts with more absolute im- 
partiality. The writer expresses no opinion whatever re- 
specting the occurrence. This is not the method of an 
idealist who has invented the occurrence for the purpose of 
glorifying his Master, or of a dogmatic who has written it 
to prove a doctrine; it is the language of a pre-eminently 
honest, fair-minded and impartial witness. And upon this 
narrative the great mass of readers and students have come 
to but one conclusion—that to which both friend and foe 
came at that time—that it was a genuine resurrection from 
the dead, a great and notable miracle.” 

The author of this fine piece of logic in answer to the de- 
structive infidels is Dr. Lyman Abbot, late editor of the ‘‘Out- 
look.” It is quoted from page 148 of his commentary on the 
Gospel of John, published in New York City fifty years ago. 
Yet this faith he once held was abandoned by him and for 
years he has destroyed what he once believed. 

We conclude by saying that the great miracle, unimpeach- 
able as to its historicity, is the supreme evidence of the 
Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Infidels of every description 
have acknowledged that such must be the case if the miracle 
is true. The Jewish philosopher Spinoza, with his pantheistic 
theory, declared ‘‘Could I be persuaded of the truth of the 
raising of Lazarus, I would have broken into pieces my 
whole system, and would have embraced without repug- 
nance the ordinary faith of Christians.” 

Verses 47-57, ‘The great miracle had taken place. The 
self-witness of our Lord had been crowned by this mani- 
festation of His omnipotence. Many Jews had been wit- 
nesses; none of them could deny it. The Sandedrim, the 
great council, composed of chief priests, great teachers, 
elders and rulers, is called together. The great question 
which was raised, is the question, What shall we do about it? 
Then follows a most startling admission. ‘“Ihis man doeth 
many miracles.”’ His foes bore united testimony to the fact 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 215 


that He performed many miracles. The miracles He had 
done as recorded in this Gospel are all coupled with His 
claims of Messiahship and Deity. His repeated assertions 
of Oneness with God, who sent Him, were attested by these 
miracles. If these miracles had not been incontrovertible, 
if even the slightest uncertainty had been possible, these 
national leaders of Judaism would never have made such an 
admission. They did not even submit the question about 
His miracles. They were indisputable. Yet today the 
modern Sadducees in their councils, the faculties of semin- 
aries, the boasters of ‘“modern Biblical Scholarship,” deny the 
miracles of Christ, 1900 years after they had been done, 
when the eye-witnesses declared that He worked many 
miracles. If these Pharisees and chief priests who saw 
Christ, saw His miracles, and who left no stone unturned 
to oppose Him, never dared to even dispute the genuineness 
of these miracles, it is ridiculously absurd, to deny His 
miracles now. Great was the satanic blindness of these 
Jews; greater still and many times worse is the infidelity of 
the destructive critics in the camp of Christendom. 

What shall we do about it? That is their question. If 
we let Him alone, everybody is going to believe on Him, 
acknowledge Him as the sent One, the promised Messiah, 
King-Messiah. ‘Then follows an argument produced by 
the ignorance of unbelief. Selfishly they feared for their 
national institution. The Romans, if He should be believed 
on as the promised King, will take away our place (the 
temple) and destroy our national existence. They thought 
that His rejection would insure safety for them; that 
His acceptance would lead to disaster. But the disaster they 
feared came upon the temple, Jerusalem and the nation 
because they condemned Him to death. The cry “‘His blood 
be upon us and upon our children” has found its dreadful 
accomplishment in their history of nineteen hundred years. 

One of their number speaks. It is Caiaphas, who was 
high priest that year. He and his father-n-law, Annas, 
were Sadducees (Acts v:17). It seems that the Sadducees 
must have controlled the great council at that time. Cai- 
aphas and Annas both held the office of high priest (Luke 
i11:2) during the ministry of our Lord and after. That they 


216 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


were in power in the Sanhedrim seems to be confirmed by 
the sneer of Caiaphas against the statement made by the 
Pharisees—‘“Ye know nothing at all, you are ignorant 
about this whole question,” and he continues “‘nor consider 
that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the 
people, and that the whole nation perish not.”” He suggests 
that He be put out of the way for expediency’s sake. “It is 
expedient for us,” what a statement this is!) Whether He 
is innocent or not, whether He is our Messiah or not, whether 
He is God manifested in the flesh or not, for the benefit of 
the whole nation, but one course is open, He must die. The 
question of right and law is not in view at all. God was 
not in their thoughts. He spoke as a clever politician, like 
the politicians of the world to this day, it was not the question 
of right with him, but the question of profit. 

But there is another side. While Caiaphas acted in wicked- 
ness, God nevertheless used him as a mouthpiece to utter 
a great truth. He used him as an instrument, the same as 
Balaam, who hated Israel, was used to pronounce Israel’s 
blessedness. He spoke through Caiaphas whose official 
standing as high priest gave his words official weight and 
authority. However, Caiaphas was not aware that he was 
made the mouthpiece of the Spirit of God and that his words 
were prophetical. He had said in all satanic maliciousness 
that it would be a very good thing, an expedient thing, that 
this one man should die for the people, that the whole nation 
perish not. The truth was that “‘Jesus should die for that 
nation’; so that the nation might ultimately be saved by 
the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the 
Spirit of God had spoken long ago. ‘“‘For the transgression 
of My people was He stricken” (Isaiah liii). Being miracu- 
lously compelled by the Holy Spirit, Caiaphas spoke the 
same Isaiah had written over seven hundred years before. 
And He died for that nation. The day will come when the 
remnant of Israel will be saved because He died for them. 
Then they will confess Him in the very words of Isaiah’s 
great vision. ‘Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried 
our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God 
and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, 
He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our 


— 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 217 


peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed” 
(Isaiah ]ii:4—5). 

And adds the Spirit of God ‘‘Not for that nation only, 
but that also He should gather together in one the children 
of God that were scattered abroad.” It is written in 
Ephesians ‘‘He loved the church and gave Himself for it.” 
This fact is brought out here in anticipation of the calling of 
the elect from all nations, the other sheep, to form the Church, 
His body. 

The advice of Caiaphas must have made a deep impression 
on the majority of the council. If Nicodemus was there, as 
he probably was, for he belonged to the Sanhedrim, his, and 
perhaps the objections of others, were speedily silenced. 
From that day forth they took counsel together for to put 
Him to death. ‘To accomplish this needed great caution; 
with all their wicked endeavors they were great cowards, 
governed in every detail by self-interest. How many 
council meetings they held is not reported. 

And our omniscient Lord knew all about it. He was not 
present when Caiaphas advocated His death. He needed 
not the information of what had taken place to reach Him 
through friends. He knew their thoughts; He heard their 
words and therefore He walked no more openly among the 
Jews. He knew what would follow; He knew when His 
hour would come, but now He withdrew to a village called 
Ephraim. There He tarried. Nothing is said of His 
activity there; no record is given of what He spake and did 
in Ephraim. From this we may conclude that He spent the 
time there in fellowship with His Father and in communing 
with His disciples. 

It was now Passover time; the Jews’ feast drew near. 
Large numbers were traveling towards Jerusalem to attend 
the feast in the holy city. It seems that many of these 
Jewish worshippers looked for the Lord Jesus. His name 
was widely known; His great miracles were known to the 
multitudes. There was a great expectation among them 
that He would appear at the feast in. Jerusalem and manifest 
still greater glory. So they gathered in groups in the 
yard of the temple eagerly asking the question, What think 
ye, that He will not come to the feast? 


218 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


It seems the plotting enemies of our Lord had reached a 
definite decision. They knew He had disappeared. No 
one knew where He lodged. So they had issued orders that 
if any man knew where He was, to report His hiding place 
at once, so that they might apprehend Him and carry out 
their dark counsels. But the Christ was not in their hands. 
Before He laid down His life voluntarily, before His hour 
came, He must be presented to Jerusalem as King openly. 


CHAPTER XII 


Verses 1-11. We come riow to the final public appearance 
of our Lord before the Jews of Jerusalem. After this 
chapter the record of John’s Gospel gives us the blessed 
messages He spoke to His own disciples, which are not 
reported by the synoptic Gospels. And after they were 
finished He uttered that matchless prayer before He went 
to Gethsemane and willingly stretched forth His loving 
hands to be bound and led away “‘as a Lamb to the slaughter.” 

What the other Gospels report that happened on the way 
to Jerusalem, like the healing of the blind man in Jericho, the 
incident with Zacchaeus, etc., is all omitted by the Apostle 
John. We shall not burden our pages with additional 
objections and questionings of an infidel Bible criticism. 

He returned to Bethany. It was His last journey to 
Jerusalem, as we read in Luke’s Gospel. On the way there He 
informed His disciples what would now soon take place: 
“Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are 
written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be 
accomplished. For He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, 
and shall be mocked and spitefully entreated and spit upon. 
And they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death, and the 
third day He shall rise again” (Luke xviii:31-33). Thus 
He walked along with His disciples in perfect calmness. He 
knew all the suffering and all the shame which awaited Him 
in David’s city. He set His face like flint in fullest con- 
fidence that He would not be ashamed but finish the work 
the Father gave Him to do and have the victory. (See 
Isaiah 1:6-7). He arrived in Bethany on the eve of the 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 219 


Sabbath, that is, on Friday afternoon. He spent that last 
Sabbath with His beloved friends in Bethany; the next 
Sabbath His body rested in the tomb. Then on the first 
day of the week, following the Sabbath, He rode into Jer- 
usalem publicly on an ass. In connection with His arrival 
in Bethany the fact is mentioned that Lazarus was there— 
“‘where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He raised 
from the dead.” Ever since Lazarus had been raised from 
the dead he had dwelt in Bethany as the witness of the 
omnipotent power of the Christ. That the miracle was widely 
known, that it was then made known to the Jews, who had 
come to attend the Passover, may be learned from verse 
nine; multitudes of Jews came to Bethany to see Lazarus. 

“There they made Him a supper.”? Martha was as busy 
as ever with serving. She serves now without being cum- 
bered with much serving. Then Lazarus is mentioned as 
being one of them that sat at the table with Him. MHere 
Lazarus is mentioned for the last time; after this we never 
hear of him again. We do not know how long he lived, or 
how he lived. The last record given of him is here, being at 
the table with Him who had raised him from the dead. This 
supper in Bethany is a beautiful type of that great coming 
marriage supper of the Lamb, which will take place in 
glory (Revelation xix). The Lord Jesus Christ will then 
meet His own in glory. Lazarus represents those who died 
and who are raised from among the dead; the sisters Martha 
and Mary, those who are alive when He comes. There is 
still another lesson. We have seen how Lazarus, dead, 
represents the sinner dead in trespasses and sins; his resur- 
rection, the life he receives who believes on him; then 
followed liberty, ‘‘loose him and let him go.”’ Here Lazarus 
is in fellowship with the Lord, enjoying communion with 
Him. Life, Liberty and Fellowship—these are the three 
great facts of the Gospel of Grace. 

The great event which happened at this supper was when 
Mary is at His feet again and anoints them with spikenard, 
very costly, and then wiped His feet with her hair. It was 
the expression of her deepest love and gratitude, an act of 
worship by which she acknowledged Him as Lord. In 
Matthew and Mark the record tells us that she anointed His 


220 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


head also (Matthew xxvi:6-13; Mark xiv:3-9). In both of 
these Gospels we hear that the Lord declared wherever the 
Gospel is preached throughout the whole world, that her 
deed is to be mentioned; but in John’s Gospel the odor of 
the anointment is mentioned as filling the whole house. 
These differences are not discrepancies, nor is it necessary, 
in order to harmonize these differences, to invent several 
anointings, as some have done. There was but one anoint- 
ing. She anointed both His head and His feet; John passes 
over the fact that she anointed His head. It must have been 
in this wise: she first anointed His head and then sank 
down at His feet and anointed them as an act of deepest 
humility, gratitude and worship. Thus alone the act as 
anticipation of His burial was fully expressed. And Mary 
of Bethany was not among the women who went to the 
sepulchre to embalm the body of our Lord; she knew He 
would rise from among the dead. 

Let us also remember that the woman who was a sinner 
' (Luke vii:38) wiped His feet with her hair. Here are no 
more tears, but all is joy and gladness; Mary brought her 
alabaster box containing a pound of ointment of spikenard, 
very costly, not using just a little, but breaking the alabaster 
box she emptied it all, for He is worthy of all. What the 
ointment was, the spikenard, cannot be ascertained; the 
fact is stated that it wasofvery great value. Such costly 
ointments were much used among the ancients and highly 
prized, but generally a very little was used of it. Perhaps 
the alabaster box containing the precious ointment was a 
great treasure of the family. It was the best Mary pos- 
sessed and she gave it to Him. As we read:in 1 Corinthians 
x1:15, the glory of the woman is her long hair; she put all 
her glory at His feet to glorify Him. She expressed in this 
way that Christ was her all; she bore witness to His Deity, 
and she alone among all His disciples had realized in faith 
that He was on the way_to the cross, that He would die, be 
buried and rise again. No word was spoken by her, but 
her silent act of faith, adoration and worship, the savour 
of it, filled the whole house. It was done unto Him; it 
magnified Him, His blessed person and His equally blessed 
work. And sweet to Him was this act of worship, this lavish 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 221 


expression of love., She is the standing pattern of true 
affection for the Lord Jesus Christ and devotedness unto 
Him. But that can only be attained by communion with 
Him, sitting at His feet as Mary did. Such devotedness to 
Him, exaltation of His ever blessed and worthy Name, is 
still the sweet savour unto Him and still fills the whole house. 
Such devotion Satan hates. He did not let this scene go 
unchallenged. His voice is heard through one of the dis- 
ciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray Him. 
According to Matthew and Mark the other disciples also had 
indignation, considering the great act of love as wasteful. 
Judas was the spokesman and the other disciples in their 
ignorance endorsed his sentiment. Before this our Lord had 
indicated the character of Judas, who was now about to 
betray Him. He knew that he had a devil (John vi:64). 
Judas had no affection for the Lord Jesus Christ, though he 
was a disciple; he had no affection for Him because he did 
not believe on Him as Lord, and always called Him, Rabbi. 
Therefore he did not think of the Lord Jesus. Why was not 
this ointment sold for three hundred pence (denarii), and 
given tothe poor? It has been calculated that three hundred 
pence make about fifty dollars; the thirty pieces of silver for 
which Judas sold Christ make about fifteen dollars. But 
did he really care for the poor? The omniscient Spirit of 
God tells us that it was but the cover for a more sordid 
motive. He was a thief; he carried the bag, and all along 
covetousness, the love of money, had led him to steal. This 
gives us an interesting side-light on the poverty of Him, 
who was rich, and had become poor. The bag was not a 
portmanteau, but a chest into which voluntary contributions 
both in coin and in provisions were put by friends, like 
Joanna, Susanna and many others (Luke viii:3). Thus the 
Son of God, the Creator of all things, in poverty was main- 
tained, as well as His disciples, by the voluntary contributions 
of His friends. Judas had charge of all this. Many a 
nominal Christian uses today the same falsehood Judas used 
to hide the love of money. ‘They excuse themselves from 
certain duties, like assisting foreign missionary work. They 
plead “‘charity begins at home,” that the poor and needy 
must be helped, but in reality they are covetous and selfish. 


222 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


“He was a thief.” This statement should silence the 
foolish inventions that Judas was moved by a noble purpose 
in betraying the Lord Jesus. ‘The theory claims that Judas 
wanted the Lord Jesus to be King. He thought if He was 
betrayed and taken captive, He would exercise His divine 
power, overthrow His enemies and take the throne; thus it is 
claimed he tried to hasten the Kingship and Kingdom of 
Christ. He was a thief! 

Then the Lord rebuked Judas and vindicated Mary. Her 
act was prophetic: it foretold His coming death and burial. 
To help the poor is always possible, for poverty will 
always exist throughout this age, and He added “but Me ye 
have not always.’’ He -was soon to return to the Father, 
then His bodily presence would cease. Attention has been 
rightly called that this one statement of our Lord silences 
completely the abominable blasphemy of Rome of the 
Lord’s bodily presence in the ‘‘Mass.” 

On that memorable day a large number of Jews came to 
Bethany; they had heard that He was there, and as the 
village was near Jerusalem they hurried there to see Him. 
They also were curious to see Lazarus to convince themselves 
that he was really alive. The crowds which came must 
have been very large; the attention of the chief priests was 
called to it and they at once consulted to put Lazarus to 
death also. The miracle could not be denied and so they 
tried to silence the witness. What a confirmation of another 
word of our Lord as to unbelief: “Neither will they believe 
though one rose from the dead’’! 

Many Jews going away from Bethany believed on Jesus, 
that He is the Messiah. They must have spread their con- 
viction among others so that everywhere it must have been 
heard, something like this—He is the Messiah, none but the 
Messiah could raise any one from the dead. 

Verses 12-19. A number of times in this Gospel we have 
learned how our Lord withdrew, disappearing from the 
multitudes, retiring into the wilderness to be alone; but now 
He no longer hides Himself. In chapter vi:15 they wanted to 
make Him King by force, but now He appears voluntarily 
and presents Himself as the promised King to Jerusalem. 


This had to be done before He died on the Cross, in fulfill- 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 223 


ment of the prediction uttered by Zechariah. This fact an- 
nihilates completely the invention of a prolific writer who 
has tried to demonstrate that Christ did not come as King 
with an offer of the promised kingdom; his theory has sadly 
miscarried. 

The next day mentioned is the day known in Christendom 
as “‘Palm Sunday,” the beginning of that memorable week 
in which He died as the substitute of sinners, in which He 
laid in the grave; the next week begins with the glorious 
day of resurrection. On that day the 483 prophetic years 
given in Daniel’s great prophecy (Daniel ix) had expired. 
An immense crowd of people from all over the land had 
gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover feast. No doubt 
hundreds, if not thousands had seen Him, heard Him, were 
fed by Him in the wilderness; and now they were in the 
City, perhaps eagerly looking for Him. All at once the news 
sweeps through the crowd—He is coming! He is coming! 
The vast multitude had heard of the great miracle which had 
taken place in Bethany. There had been a stream of 
visitors and probably these brought the news to Jerusalem, 
He is coming to the feast. Soon a great throng of people 
gathered and as they went forth on the road they plucked 
branches from the palm trees to welcome the King. ‘This 
was an ancient custom in welcoming Kings and victorious 
generals. The palm branches therefore denote victory; this 
is the case in the Book of Revelation (vii:9). The palm 
trees are very prominent also in the description of the 
Millennial Temple (Ezekiel xl, etc.). Then followed a 
mighty cry, ‘““Hosanna!’’ Perhaps this cry came when the 
crowds beheld Him for the first time, riding upon the ass. 
Hosanna is taken fromthe Messianiccxviii Psalm. “Savenow, 
I beseech thee, O Lord”’ (verse 25). It is a cry for salvation. 
This was followed by another, partial quotation from the 
same Psalm. “Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in 
the name of the Lord.” But the words “The King of 
Israel’? are not found in the Psalm. It was added by the 
people in their enthusiasm in welcoming Him, whom many 
believed to be the promised Messiah. In Matthew’s Gospel, 
after the Lord had spoken the words of condemnation 
against the leaders of the nation, He said, before He left 


224 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


the house, ‘‘For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me hence- 
forth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name 
of the Lord.” This of course was not fulfilled when they 
cried thus when He was about entering Jerusalem. It will be 
fulfilled in the future when our Lord returns in power and 
glory and a remnant of His people welcomes Him as the 
deliverer. 

Matthew tells us about the particulars of the pre- 
paration to enter Jerusalem upon the ass (Matthew xxi:7; 
see our exposition of Matthew). ‘The ass is a symbol not of 
a great conqueror, but of humility. Yet we know from 
Deborah’s song that great men rode upon white asses 
(Judge. v:10). “‘No Roman soldier in the garrison of Jer- 
usalem, who standing at his post or sitting in his barrack 
window, saw our Lord riding on an ass, could report to his 
centurion that He looked like one who came to wrest the 
kingdom of Judea out of the hand of the Romans, drive out 
the governor and his legions from the tower of Antonia, and 
achieve independence for the Jews with the sword.” ‘The 
day is coming when He will sit upon a white charger, when 
He comes, not traveling over a dusty country road, but when 
He comes forth out of the opened heavens; then, and not 
till then will all the kingdoms fall, and His Kingdom come. 
Yet there can be no question that many in that vast throng 
expected something to happen at this time, some startling 
manifestation by which their carnal expectations of deliver- 
ance from the Roman power was to be realized. When it 
did not come, and they saw Him in the hands of the Romans, 
a bound captive, the crowds turned from the popular 
applause, the expecting “‘Hosanna,” to the horrible cry 
“Crucify Him!” 

John alludes briefly to Zechariah’s prediction. It must be 
noticed that Zechariah’s great prediction was not fulfilled on 
that day. The Holy Spirit in quoting from it leaves out on 
purpose certain statements which can only be fulfilled when 
He comes again. In fact, like so many other Messianic 
prophecies in the Old Testament, Zechariah ix:9-11 is a 
blending of His first and second coming. 

His disciples beheld all this and yet they understood not. 
They failed to see the meaning of all this. It was ordered 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 225 


thus by our Lord; His Spirit hid the full meaning of all these 
things for a purpose. Had they grasped it all, had they 
understood all about His sufferings, His rejection, His 
Cross (though it was plainly written in their Scriptures), the 
enemy might have brought the charge that all was a well- 
laid scheme. But the fact that they did not understand, 
nor expect His resurrection from the dead, makes 
deception, and self-deception especially, impossible. The 
truth came to them “when Jesus was glorified.”” This 
means the gift of His Spirit after His resurrection and 
ascension, the Holy Spirit who is here as the witness that 
Christ is in glory, Of Him our Lord had said “He shall 
teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, 
whatsoever | have said unto you” (John xiv:26). When He 
had come and dwelt in them they understood it all and saw 
how wonderfully the Lord had dealt with them, used them, 
and how Scripture had been accomplished. 

Verse 17 puts before us once more that greatest of all 
miracles, the raising up of Lazarus. ‘Those who had been in 
Bethany, who were the eye witnesses of what had taken 
place, were undoubtedly in the lead. They bare record, 
probably somewhat in the following manner: We are well 
acquainted with Lazarus, Mary and Martha. We often 
visited their home. Some time ago we received the news 
that Lazarus was very sick and a few days later we heard that 
he had died. We at once went to Bethany and found that 
the report was true. We went to mourn with our friends; 
some of us wrapped the corpse in the grave clothes and 
deposited him in the tomb; we put the stone before the 
tomb and then waited the customary three days. On the 
fourth day, this man Jesus of Nazareth came. He was a 
friend of the family; Mary and Martha had sent for Him, 
as soon as their brother had fallen sick. He delayed His 
coming till Lazarus was dead and put into the grave. He 
demanded to see the place where his friend rested in death. 
Then He astonished us by calling us to take away the stone. 
Some of us right here responded and we removed the stone 
from the opening of the tomb. Then He said “Lazarus 
come forth!” No sooner was the word spoken but Lazarus 
came forth and life was restored to him. We saw it all and 


226 THE GOSPEL. OF JOHN 


you can go to Bethany and see Lazarus and convince yourself 
that he is living. And this man, who is riding upon an ass, 
is the One who did all this. Such must have been their 
witness before the great multitude. For this cause, on 
account of this testimony the vast multitude came forth to 
meet Him, and to join in the cry of welcome. 

His enemies, the Pharisees, now appear upon the scéne. 
They were the witnesses of this triumphal entrance of the 
hated and despised Nazarene, Him, whom they tried to stone, 
and had counselled to put to death. They acknowledge 
their helplessness? ‘“Che Pharisees, therefore, said among 
themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? Behold 
the world is gone after Him.” They were at their wits’ 
end. All along they had planned and tried maliciously to 
incite the mob against Him, so that they might put Him 
out of the way. Perhaps they had hoped to accomplish 
something against Him with the large crowds of people fill- 
ing the city. But instead of having the masses on their 
side, they saw that they were on the side of their enemy, 
acclaiming Him as the King of Israel. They looked on and 
said amongst themselves: “Behold what has happened!’ 
**Just look at these multitudes with palm branches! Listen 
to the Hosanna cries!” ‘They confess that the whole world 
has gone after Him. How true this was! According to the 
reckoning of Josephus about three million people assembled 
from everywhere at the Passover time in Jerusalem, and 
they all shouted His name. The next paragraph tells us 
that even the attention of Greek Gentiles had been arrested 
and they desired to see Jesus. 

What a moment of triumph! Yet not a word is said 
about Himself. No record given that He spoke one word 
in all this scene, or that He, in any way responded to the 
enthusiasm of the multitude. We believe, unmoved as He 
was, He looked beyond all what was taking place. He 
knew what was about to come. 

Verses 20-22. And now certain Greeks asked for Him. 
This incident must have taken place sometime after the 
triumphal entry of our Lord into Jerusalem, for if it had been 
at that time, the inquiring Greeks would have beheld Him, 
for He was the central figure on that memorable day. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 227 


These Greeks were not Grecian Jews, that is Jews who had 
been away from Palestine and who had become more or less 
identified with Greek life and spoke the Greek language. 
Such were the Grecians mentioned in Acts vi. ‘They were 
natives of Greece who, like some Romans, had turned away 
from idols and had become proselytes to the Jewish faith. 
They came up to Jerusalem to the feast to worship, for they 
had adopted the Hebrew religion, and came to Jerusalem to 
participate in the divinely commanded feasts of the Lord. 
To the same class of proselytes belonged the centurion 
whose son our Lord healed; Cornelius to whom Peter was 
sent, and the eunuch whom the evangelist Philip met on the 
road to Gaza. 

Perhaps it was the Greek name of Philip which attracted 
them to him and to present their petition, “‘Sir, we would 
see Jesus.” ‘The original is more emphatic, ‘‘We wish, we 
desire to see Jesus.”” We do not know what their motive 
was, probably more than idle curiosity. The historian 
Eusebius mentions a tradition that they had been sent by 
the Syrian king Edessa with a commission to invite Jesus to 
come to his realm, assuring Him a hearty and princely 
welcome. But this is nothing but a tradition. The visit of 
the wise men at the time of the infancy of our Lord was 
prophetic; the coming of these inquiring Greeks is also 
prophetic. The leaders of the nation were seeking even 
then to kill Him, but Gentiles came to seek to know Him; 
rejected by His own the Gentiles would turn to Him. 

Verses 23-26. The request was not granted. Another one 
might have snatched this opportunity to increase his triumph, 
for while multitudes had acclaimed Him as the King of 
Israel, those from afar had come also to know Him. But our 
Lord is not carried away by any enthusiasm. Instead of 
motioning the Greeks into His presence to converse with 
them He said,‘“The hour is come, that the Son of Man should 
be glorified.” 

It is a different glorification from that which man seeks for 
himself. He spoke of the glory which should follow His 
suffering. ‘The coming of these Greeks indicated the time 
when the strangers from the commonwealth of Israel would 
seek Him as Saviour, when the middle wall of partition would 


228 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


be broken down, and the salvation of God would go far 
hence to the Gentiles, so that the other sheep (John x) might 
be gathered in, to form with the sheep from the Jewish fold, 
the one flock. But all this could not be accomplished by 
His earthly life; it necessitated His death. He had to be lifted 
up first on the cross before all could be drawn to Him. 
Through death alone could come the glory, the glory He 
received, and the glory of salvation for a lost world. The 
words which follow make this clear. “Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and 
die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
fruit.’ It is a simple, yet deep saying. The seed, the corn 
of wheat, may be stored in the granary but it is useless 
there. In order to be a blessing, to reproduce itself, to 
bestow life, the corn of wheat must be put into the ground, 
to decay and to die. Out of death life springs and much 
fruit results. He must die and only through His death 
could salvation and life be procured. Like the corn of 
wheat in the granary, if our Lord had done nothing but live 
and teach and do deeds of mercy, He would have remained 
alone. Like the corn of wheat put into the ground to die, 
He died and from His death, His life given vicariously, alone 
comes the harvest of salvation, life and glory. This great 
statement of our Lord, introduced with the solemn ““Amen— 
Amen—Verily, Verily” disposed completely of the delusive 
teaching that union with Christ is brought about by His 
incarnation, by taking on a human body and living among 
men. A certain school speaks of Him as taking on sinful, 
fallen humanity, which is a wicked statement, and that by 
having taken upon Himself humanity, He lifts humanity 
back to the favor of God. ‘This one verse silences this evil 
invention. Not His life, but His death lifts man from the 
horrible pit and the miry clay. ‘The Just One died for the 
unjust that He might bring us to God.”’ The verse answers 
another equally wicked invention of the natura! mind. The 
modern theology regards the death of Christ as an act of 
self-denial; or they speak of Him as suffering the martyr’s 
death. When our Lord illustrates His coming death and the 
blessed results of His death, by the dying of the corn of 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 229 


wheat, He gives a complete answer to these modern enemies 
of His sacrificial and finished work on the cross. 

But who is able to estimate the fruits of His death! It 
will take all eternity to know and to enjoy the surpassing 
riches of His grace. ‘The source of all we have and are, what 
we shall have and shall be, is the cross of Christ, His blessed, 
precious death for us. 

When the corn of wheat dies it reproduces itself in other 
corns of wheat. The life of the corn of wheat which passed 
through death is communicated. Even so, we, who have 
believed, possess His life, the life which passed through 
death. 

“He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his 
life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” ‘The same 
statement we find in five other passages in the Gospels 
(Matthew x:39; xvi:25; Mark viii:35; Luke ix:24; xvii:33). 

The same principle of self-sacrifice holds good for the 
believer, who follows Christ. His path is theirs, a path of 
suffering and shame. It means to be dead to the world, its 
glory and its ambitions, to give up and sacrifice, constantly 
reaching out after the things which are above. What Paul 
wrote to the Philippians illustrates this saying of our Lord, 
*‘But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for 
Christ . . .for Whom I suffered the loss of all things, and 
to count them but dung, that I may win Christ... That 
I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the 
fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto 
His death” (Phil. i11:7-10). The practical condemnation 
which the statement of our Lord, “‘he that loveth his lite 
shall lose it, etc.” passes on the life lived by many should 
never be overlooked. How few hate their lives here! How 
many love their lives, and care for nothing but how to make 
them comfortable and happy! The eterna] loss or the eternal 
gain are often entirely forgotten. How little of the real 
self-denial and self-sacrifice is known even among God’s 
people in our easy going, pleasure and comfort loving 
generation! Let us remember it daily, “If ye then be risen 
with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ 
sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on 
things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, 


230 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who 
is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him 
in glory” (Col. iii:1-4). 

True service for the Lord is to follow Him. “If any man 
serve Me, let him follow Me.” It is a service inseparable 
from following Him, living in His fellowship, walking in 
His footsteps, being obedient to Him. How much there is 
called Christian service, and service for the Lord, which 
is but service in self-will! True service in Him and 
with Him has two great promises, given here by our 
Lord. The first is ““Where I am, there shall also my 
servant be.” This gracious promise is repeated in the 
fourteenth chapter, “I will-come again and receive you unto 
myself, that where I am ye may bealso.” There will be an 
eternal union of Christ with His own, an eternal fellowship. 
All who are Christ’s and serve Him will be with Him; 
wherever He is there we shall be with Him. And whatever 
He has we shall have and possess with Him. But what does 
it mean, “If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour”’! 
No Saint has ever discovered the full meaning of this great 
promise, one of the greatest in the Word of God. The 
Father’s delight is His Son. Him He has honored; to Him 
He has given the pre-eminence in all things. He delights 
in all who honor His Son, who exalt Him, give Him the 
first place in their lives, serve Him and follow in His foot- 
steps. Such He will honor; His blessing will be upon 
them. What will it be in that coming eternity when we 
shall be in His presence! All who have served the Lord 
Jesus Christ, who have been true and loyal to Him, will be 
honored by the Father. This will be heaven: with Christ, 
and receiving honor and glory from the Father. 

“It is impossible not to see throughout this verse that our 
Lord’s intention is to discourage the carnal and earthly 
expectations of His Jewish followers, and yet to encourage 
them by showing what they might confidently look for. 
They must follow in His steps if they were His true servants, 
and in so following they would find a cross, and not a crown, 
whatever they may be thinking, at that moment, while the 
hosannas of an excited crowd were sounding in their ears. 
But though they had a cross, they should not miss a reward 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 231 


finally, which would make amends for all. They would be 
with Christ in Glory. They would be honored by God the 
Father’’* 

Verses 27-33. In the midst of this scene, when the Greeks 
had inquired for Him, when He had spoken of the necessity of 
His death, so that, like the dying corn of wheat, there might 
be from Him much fruit, He uttered these words of deep 
soulical emotion. What else did produce this sudden agony 
but the Cross, which loomed up before His eyes! He was 
even in His humiliation the omniscient Lord. He knew all 
things. He knew but a few days more and they would spit in 
His face, smite His cheeks, scourge His back with the cruel 
scourge, and nail Him to the tree. But the knowledge of 
the coming shame and suffering did not affect Him thus. 
There was something deeper than that. He was to suffer 
in a way not fully known tous. As the substitute of sinners 
He who knew no sin was to be made sin and a curse for us. 
Well says a German expositor: “The only solution of this 
extreme trouble is the vicarious significance of the sufferings 
and death of Christ. If our chastisement was upon Him, in 
order that we might have peace, then in Him must have been 
concentrated all the horror of death. He bore the sin of the 
world and the wages of that sin is death. Death therefore 
must to Him assume its most frightful form. ‘The physical 
suffering was nothing compared to the immeasurable suf- 
fering of soul which impended over the Redeemer, and the 
full greatness and depth of which He clearly perceives.” f 
He looked forward to the cross, and knowing all it meant 
when He would become the Sin-bearer His holy soul was 
stirred by this deep agony. No finite mind can comprehend 
what it was when He said ‘‘Now is My soul troubled.” He 
adds, “What shall I say?” It is a question of anguish, per- 
plexity and deep distress. 

Then follows a prayer: “‘Father, save Me from this hour.” 
This brief utterance must not be detached from the next 
statement, ‘‘But for this cause came [ unto this hour.”” The 
prayer to be saved from this hour reveals His human nature, 
though it was sinless, yet in that nature He could suffer, 





*Thoughts on John. 
tHengstenberg. 


232 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


and instinctively He shrank from it. His human nature 
would suggest to ask the Father to save Him from this hour. 
Thus He spoke in Gethsemane also, ‘“O My Father, if this 
cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will 
be done” (Matt. xxvi:42). But He answers with a, No. While 
He tells out His feeling as a true man, He knows that for 
this cause, to suffer and to die as substitute of sinners, He 
came unto this hour. Thus He declared His entire submis- 
sion to His will, to accomplish the purpose of His coming 
into the world. As one has said, ‘““The struggle is like one 
of those fissures in the crust of the earth, which enables 
science to fathom the bowels of the earth. It lets us read 
the very inmost depths of the Lord’s being.” 

But it was more than a submission to the will of the 
Father, who sent His Son. His great desire was that the 
Father’s Name might be glorified, “Father, glorify Thy 
Name.” In the great work He came to do the Father is 
glorified both as to His Name and His attributes. The 
agony and the pain which passed through His soul are for- 
gotten and His holy ambition is the Father’s Glory. We 
see three significant steps in these utterances of our Lord. 
First, His sinless human soul shrank from the sufferings. In 
the second place He expresses His entire submission to the 
Father’s will, and finally He desires the Glory of the Father’s 
Name. It has been remarked that the utmost reach of the 
renewed will of a believer is to say always, “‘Father, glorify 
Thy Namein Me. Do with Me what Thou wilt, only glorify 
Thy Name.” The glory of God after all is the end for which 
all things were created. Paul was filled with this when he 
wrote the Philippians, as the prisoner in Rome, ‘“That in all 
things, by life or by death, Christ might be magnified in my 
body.” 

And the Father answers at once. What had taken place, 
the words His well beloved Son had spoken, pleased Him. 
Therefore His voice was heard from heaven. It is the third 
time the Father spoke above His Son. That voice was 
heard when the Lord had gone into Jordan for baptism; it 
was heard on the Mount of Transfiguration, and now for 
the third time, as the Son of God is about to suffer and to 
die, the Father speaks. Here as at the other occasions the 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN . fae 


positive proof is given that the Father and the Son are two 
distinct persons. It was a miracle when that voice was 
heard; while we cannot explain it, as no other miracle can 
be explained, we reverently believe it. The voice declared, 
“T have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”” What 
glorification is this? Some have explained it as meaning that 
the Father had been glorified in His incarnation, in His 
miracles, in the Word which His Son had spoken, and now 
His Name was to be again glorified in His suffering and 
death. We believe it refers rather to the resurrection of 
Lazarus from the dead and to His own resurrection. When 
our Lord was informed of the illness of His friend, He said, 
“This sickness is not unto death, but unto the glory of 
God.” When therefore Lazarus was raised from the dead 
it glorified the Name of the Father. Again, He would be 
glorified in the resurrection of His own Son. 

That something miraculous had taken place the whole 
company of people who were present realized. All heard it 
and some said that it was thunder, while others hearing the 
sounds distinctly declared that it was an angel who had 
spoken. None recognized the Father’s voice, the Son only 
heard and understood. Some think that the Greeks, who 
were probably still in that company, said that it thundered, 
while the Jews knew that a voice had really spoken, and 
they thought it was an angel. But that there must have 
been persons among them who heard the actual voice is 
vouched for by the words of our Lord when He said: ‘This 
voice came not for My sake but for your sakes.” It con- 
firmed once more the fact of His Deity. 

‘Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince 
of this world be cast out.”? This passage, which has been 
considered one of the difficult verses in this Gospel, becomes 
simple when we consider that it is anticipative. He speaks 
of the work of the Cross as already accomplished, and that 
the result of it will be the judgment of this world and the 
casting out of the Prince of this world (Satan). The death 
of Christ is the condemnation of this world and all its glory; 
believers, who are in Christ, dead with Him and risen with 
Him, are dead to the world and the world is dead unto them. 
The sentence of judgment is passed upon the world, and its 


234 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


prince is also judged, in due time he will be cast out. How 
and when this is to be consummated the Book of Revelation 
tells us more fully (Rev. xii and xx). The death of Christ 
has stripped the prince of this world of his power and sealed 
his coming eternal doom, but it is by His death that He 
‘spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of 
them openly, triumphing over them” (Col. 11:15). In speak- 
ing these words our Lord regarded all accomplished by His 
sacrificial death, as it will be in fact in His Second Coming. 

We quote an excellent comment on this verse by Dr. 
Lyman Abbott, given in his commentary on the Gospel of 
John, written fifty years ago, when this man was sound in the 
faith and not a critical unbeliever. ‘““The world’s battle was 
fought and the victory won at Calvary. The Second Coming 
of Christ is not to redeem the world, but to realize for the 
world the fruits of redemption, in an established and eternal 
kingdom of righteousness, after, by the cross, humanity has 
been judged, the devil cast out, and the redeemed race lifted 
up. The passages of the New Testament which imply the 
continuing influence of the devil (Rom. xvi:20; 2 Cor. iv:4; 
Eph. 11:2; vi:12; etc.) are not inconsistent with Christ’s 
language here, because what Christ says is prophetic; He 
speaks of that as already accomplished which is absolutely 
certain to be accomplished by the power of that divine sac- 
rifice, so soon by Him to be consummated.” 

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men 
unto Me. This He said, signifying what death He should 
die.’ Quite often the statement of our Lord is applied to 
the preaching of the Gospel, that if Christ is lifted up in 
preaching, His power to attract will be manifested. This 
certainly is true, but it is not the meaning of the words our 
Lord spoke here. He spoke of His death by crucifixion. 
Nor does the lifting up mean His ascension. It must also 
be noticed when He speaks in this manner of His being 
lifted up, nailed to the cross, He did not say, “When I be 
lifted up,” but “zf I be lifted up.” His crucifixion was con- 
tingent; it was dependent on His own voluntary submission. 
Even in the hour of His arrest the way of deliverance was 
open to Him. And this great work finished, Christ cruci- 
fied, lifted up, dying for sinners, making known the love and 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 235 


righteousness of God, is His power to draw all men unto 
Him. “All men” does not mean what Calvin read into it, 
and which a few of his followers still maintain, that it means 
only the elect. Nor does it mean the salvation of every 
member of the human race as others teach. All men means 
both Jews and Gentiles, those who hear the Gospel, and 
hearing, believe on Him. We must not think that these 
words support the deadly heresy of universal salvation. 
We must not suppose them to mean that all men shall 
actually be saved by Christ’s crucifixion, any more than we 
must suppose that Christ actually “‘lights’ every one into 
the world (John 1:9). The analogy of other texts shows 
plainly that the only reasonable sense is, that Christ’s cruci- 
fixion would have a ‘“‘drawing”’ influence on men of all 
nations, Gentiles as well as Jews. Scripture and facts show 
us that all persons are not actually drawn to Christ. Many 
live and die and are lost in unbelief.* The meaning of this 
statement of our Lord is wider still. ‘The day will come 
when the nations of the earth will be gathered into the king- 
dom. 

Verses 35-36. The question they had asked of Him: 
“How sayest Thou, the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who 
is the Son of Man?” He left unanswered. He knew that 
these questions came not out of sincere, seeking hearts. 
Behind them He saw sneers and ridicule and He never 
answered such. Instead He made some great declarations. 
He is the Light. For a little while longer, only for a few 
days, He would tarry with them. Soon He would be no 
longer in their midst. The day of light and opportunity 
for them as His people was drawing rapidly to a close. He 
had seen with His omniscient vision that the storm clouds 
of judgment were gathering over Jerusalem and the nation, 
and therefore urges them to act now, while it was still light 
for them, and flee to Him and to His shelter. Darkness was 
rapidly approaching and coming upon them, then would they 
wander about in darkness without any ray of light, without 
aim and without any peace and rest. History tells us how 
all this was fulfilled after they had delivered the Son of 


*Bishop Ryle. 


236 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Man into the hands of the Gentiles. The years between 
the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the siege 
and destruction of Jerusalem under Titus in the year 70, 
were years of darkness and confusion. Judicial blindness 
settled upon them and ever since they were dispersed among 
the nations, the prediction of our Lord has been literally 
fulfilled; they walk in darkness and know not where they 
are going. And such is the fate of all who reject Him who 
is the Light and refuse to acknowledge Him as Saviour and 
Lord. A human being can find light, and be a child of light, 
only by believing on Him. Then He departed; He was 
hidden from them. This action may be looked upon as 
confirming what He had spoken, a kind of symbolical action. 
Verses 37-41. Here is a deep and interesting commentary 
on some of the great utterances of the Prophet Isaiah, which 
are of much importance at the present time, when this great 
prophetic book is so much slandered by the infidel critics in 
the camp of Protestantism. The first quotation is from the 
great Fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. Here is the fullest 
confirmation that this famous chapter, revealing the rejec- 
tion, the death, the sacrificial work, the burial, the resur- 
rection and glory of the Servant of the Lord, applies to the 
Lord Jesus Christ. The ancient synagogue always believed 
this. When it was found out by Jews that this chapter was 
extensively used in convincing Jews of the Messianity of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, they invented the theory that the 
person described in that chapter is not the Messiah, but the 
Jewish nation, that they suffer vicariously for the other 
nations. In doing this they revealed their awful blindness 
as well as hatred against the Lord. ‘This miserable invention 
is upheld and taught in all the theological institutions, 
seminaries and Bible institutes which are on the side of the 
evolutionary, modern theology, if it deserves to be called 
by this honored name. In other words, destructive criticism 
has joined hands with infidel Judaism in rejecting the 
Messianic meaning of the great Isaiahian prophecy. 
Isaiah in the Spirit foresaw the unbelief of the nation, 
which was now about to be consummated in the rejection 
of Jesus, our Lord. Some fatalists, ultra-Calvinists, claim 
upon these words, ‘“They believed not on Him that the say- 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 237 


ing of Isaiah the Prophet might be fulfilled,” that they mean 
that their unbelief was manifested in order that this proph- 
ecy might be fulfilled. God knew that they would not 
believe, and therefore Isaiah spoke these words. Chrysos- 
tom wrote: “It was not because Isaiah spake these words 
that they believed not, because they were not about to be- 
lieve, that He spake.”’ ‘The next statement appears more 
dificult: ““ITherefore they could not believe, because that 
Isaiah said again.” It does not mean that the Jews were 
unable to believe, though willing, because Isaiah had spoken 
these words seven hundred years before. Long before our 
Lord appeared on earth the Jewish people had deliberately 
hardened their hearts and turned away from Him. They 
were already in that state of judicial blindness, which Isaiah 
had predicted, and for this reason they were not able to 
believe. 

The quotation is from Isaiah vi in connection with the 
great vision of the glory of the Lord. The words which are 
quoted here concerning their hardened hearts and their 
judicial blindness are quoted also in Matthew xiii and in 
the last chapter of the Book of Acts. The dispensational 
character of Matthew xiii is known to all Bible students 
and teachers, who divide the Word of ‘Truth rightly. 
In the opening chapters of the Gospel of Matthew the Lord 
Jesus is seen as the promised King, heralding the Kingdom, 
that kingdom which is promised to Israel. In the twelfth 
chapter the opposition and the unbelief of the Jews becomes a 
known fact,and symbolically our Lord breaks off the relation- 
ship with His people Israel; and declares a coming new rela- 
tionship with all who do the will of His Father. Then at the 
seashore He teaches concerning the kingdom in another 
form, the form it takes on after His own received Him not. 
In connection with this we find Isaiah vi quoted; and it is 
fitting that it should be so. ‘‘And in them is fulfilled the 
prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, 
and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and 
shall not perceive; for this people’s heart is waxed gross, 
and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have 
closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and 
hear with their ears, and should understand with their 


238 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them 
(Matt. xili:14-15).* 

Here in the Gospel of John, preceding the death of our 
Lord, the same prophecy is quoted. The continued miracles 
of our Lord, His words and His warnings were not heeded by 
the nation, hence they were given over to blindness as a 
just punishment, just as the Prophet had foreseen. 

In the last chapter of Acts, the prisoner of the Lord, the 
great Apostle to the Gentiles, gathered in his lodging a 
number of Jews; they were “the chief of the Jews.” It is 
also understood by all well balanced Bible teachers that the 
Book of Acts begins with another testimony on kingdom 
lines to the Jews first, only to reveal the same hardness of 
hearts and blindness. When Paul gave a final testimony 
to these chief Jews and they turned a deaf ear to it, the 
passage of Isaiah is quoted for the last time (Acts xxvili:25- 
31). The prediction of Isaiah has now been true for almost 
1900 years, and will be in force till some day a remnant will 
return and “they shall look upon Him whom they pierced 
and mourn for Him” (Zech. xii:9-14). 

“This is no doubt a very solemn and awful subject. It 
seems at first sight to make God the author of man’s de- 
struction. But surely a moment’s reflection will show us 
that God is a Sovereign in punishing, and may punish in 
any way He pleases. Some He cuts off suddenly the mo- 
ment they sin. Others He gives over to judicial blindness, 
and ceases to strive with their consciences. “The Judge of 
all the earth will certainly do right.’ Those whom He is said 
to ‘harden and blind’ will always be found to be persons 
whom He had previously warned, exhorted, and constantly 
summoned to repent. And never is He said to harden and 
blind, and give men up to judicial hardness and blindness, 
till after a long course of warnings. ‘This was certainly the 
case with Pharaoh and with the Jews. 

“The consequence of God blinding and hardening a person 
is that He does not ‘see’ his danger with his eyes, or ‘under- 
stand’ his position with his heart. The result is that he holds 
on his way unconverted, and dies without his soul’s disease 


*See our larger Commentary on Matthew for a fuller treatment of 
this important truth. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 239 


being healed. ‘Seeing’ and ‘understanding’ are essential 
parts of conversion. No simpler reason can be given why 
myriads of church-goers continue careless, unaffected, un- 
moved and unconverted; they neither ‘see’? nor ‘under- 
stand.’ God alone can give them seeing eyes and under- 
standing hearts, and ministers cannot. And one solemn 
reason why many live and die in this state is, that they have 
resisted God’s warnings, and are justly punished already 
with a judicial blindness and hardness, by Him whom they 
have resisted. 

“The key to the whole difficulty, after all, lies in the answer 
we are prepared to give to the question: ‘Is God just in 
punishing the sinner?’ The true Christian and honest Bible 
reader will find no difficulty in answering that question in 
the affirmative. Once grant that God is just in punishing 
the ungodly, and there is an end of the problem. God may 
punish by giving over the obstinate sinner to a reprobate 
mind, as really as by sentencing him to everlasting fire at 
the last day. 

“One thing only must never be forgotten. God ‘willeth 
not the death of any sinner.’ He is willing to soften the 
hardest heart, and to open the blind eyes of the greatest 
sinner. In dealing with men about their souls we must 
never forget this. We may well remind them that by hard- 
ened impenitence they may provoke God to give them up. 
But we must also press on them that God’s mercies in Christ 
are infinite, and that, if they are finally lost, they will have 
none but themselves to blame.’’* 

And here is still another important fact and comment in 
connection with the sixth chapter of Isaiah. When Isaiah 
saw the Lord sitting in the temple and saw His Glory, He 
saw the Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘‘He saw His glory 
and spake of Him.” ‘This is one of the blessed evidences 
that the Lord Jesus revealed Himself in pre-incarnation 
times and that He is God, and possesses the glory of God. 

Verses 42-43. His testimony had not been in vain. A 
number of the chief rulers believed on Him; among them 
were Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Yet they were 


*Thoughts on John, 


240 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


cowards; they did not come out boldly to confess Him. 
From chapter ix:22, we learn that they had agreed among 
themselves, that if any did confess that Jesus is the Christ, 
that he should be put out of the synagogue. This was before 
man a great dishonor; it meant that the excommunicated one 
was on the same level as the Gentile, outside, a dog. For 
such a one there was no hope of salvation nor any hope to 
participate in the future hope of the nation. ‘The blind man, 
whom the Lord healed (chapter ix) was the first one whom 
they cast out, but he became one of the sheep of the flock 
the Shepherd came to gather. But there was a moral reason 
why they did not want to confess Him openly. They loved 
the praises of man moresthan the praise of God. ‘They re- 
ceived honor from each other and did not seek the praise 
which comes from God only (John v:44). It showed that 
they had no true faith in God, hence they could not be true 
to their convictions. ‘They knew it meant ridicule and dis- 
honor; it meant their standing and good name, as the world 
says. ‘They were not willing to pay the price. And this 
is still the case with Jews and Gentiles as well. We have 
talked with Hebrews about the Lord Jesus and heard their 
confession, that they believed that He is their Messiah, but 
on account of the fear of being repudiated by their friends, 
and loss of business, they would not make a public confession. 
“The fear of man bringeth a snare” (Prov. xxix-25). It is 
thus among professing Christians and also among believers. 
The latter know often that the men who teach and preach 
are deniers of Christ and the Truth of God, but loving the 
praises of man more than the praise of God, they can con- 
tinue in active fellowship with these modern Judases, and 
thus becoming partakers of their evil deeds (2 John verses 
10-12). Such lose their rewards, while those who are not 
ashamed to confess Him before men, and leave “‘the camp” 
where He is denied and dishonored, will receive their glorious 
reward in the day of His appearing. 

Verses 44-50. These words contain the final public 
testimony of our Lord, according to this Gospel. In the 
chapter which follows, the mass of unbelieving Jews are left 
behind and He 1s alone with the twelve; but soon he who was 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 241 


not a believer in Him, Judas, left, and Christ has but the 
eleven with Him. 

He has departed. For a time He was not seen by them. 
At His return He uttered these solemn words. Once more He 
gives His great self-witness, so prominent in this Gospel, 
as to His unity with the Father. This great witness began 
with the fifth chapter. He also bears the same witness in 
the next section of this Gospel before His disciples. Belief 
in Him means not only belief in Himself but also in Him who 
sent Him, that is God, the Father. Seeing Him means seeing 
Him who sent Him. “He that hath seen Me hath seen the 
Father” (xiv:9). There is such complete unity between 
the Father and the Son, that believing in the Son means 
believing in the Father. Perhaps our Lord spoke this word 
also for the encouragement of those who were afraid to 
confess Him, as He spoke later to His disciples—“Ye believe 
in God, believe also in Me.” In the next place He speaks of 
Himself once more as the Light. “I am come a light into 
the world that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide 
in darkness.”” He was always the Light, dwelling with God 
and in God, in that unapproachable Light. Of Him it is 
true, “God is Light, in Him there is no darkness at all.” 
But He came into the world, a world of darkness and sin. 
Through Him the darkness is dispelled and those who believe 
on Him abide no longer in darkness. “This verse shows 
that (1) Christ existed before His incarnation, even as the 
Sun exists before it appears above the Eastern hills; (2) that 
Christ is the one Saviour of the world, even as there is but 
one Sun; (3) that He came not for one nation, but for all, 
as the Sun shines for all the world.’’* 

And those who hear His words and believe not, He does 
not judge; for He came not to judge the world, but to save 
the world. These words do not clash in the least with His 
statement in the fifth chapter when He said, ““The Father 
judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the 
Son.”? It must be understood the same way as John 111:17. 
In connection with His first coming our Lord does not judge; 
His judgment work is linked with His second coming. Of 


*Dean Bourgon. 


242 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


this future judgment He speaks in the following words: 
“He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not my words, hath 
one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the 
same shall judge him in the last day.” The word “reject” 
means literally translated ‘“‘displace.” ‘To reject Christ does 
not necessarily involve a deliberate rejection of His person. 
The simple fact of neglecting Him, thinking Him of not much 
importance is a rejection of Himself, whom the Father sent. 
Any one who slights Him thus, and does not give to Him 
the place which belongs to Him, also does not receive His 
words; while on the other hand those who receive Him, bow 
to His authority, believe on Him as Saviour, the sent-One 
of the Father, receive His words and obey them. ‘They will 
be that which judgeth all who rejected Him, it is the word which 
He had spoken. In the judgment to come His Word will 
rise up and condemn all who did not believe, for in that day 
it will be found out that His Word is true and all who rejected 
it and did not receive Him, who is the living Word, will be 
judged. ‘The destructive Critics of today, with their inven- 
tions and hatred of the Word of God, will then receive their 
well deserved condemnation. Such a judgment is surely 
coming, for the infallible Son of God tells us so. 

His words which He had spoken were not spoken independ- 
ent of the Father. The Jews who listened to Him and to 
His words might think that He spoke of Himself, but He 
declares that all His words were God-given. What He spoke 
was always spoken in closest fellowship with the Father. 
He is the One whom Moses announced: ‘‘I will raise them up 
a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I 
will put my words into his mouth; and he shall speak unto 
them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to 
pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which 
he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him” (Deut. 
xvili:18-19). ‘The Son of God had received from the Father 
the commandment, what He should say and what He should 
speak. 

“When we read of the Father ‘sending’ Christ, and giving 
Christ a ‘commandment,’ we must carefully dismiss from our 
minds all idea of any inferiority to God the Father on the part 
of God the Son. The expressions are used in condescension 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 243 


to our weak faculties, to convey the idea of perfect oneness. 
We are not speaking of the relation that exists between two 
human beings like ourselves, but between the Persons in the 
Divine Trinity. The ‘sending’ of the Son was the result of 
the eternal counsel of that blessed Trinity, in which Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost are co-equal and co-eternal. The 
eternal Son was as willing to be ‘sent’ as the eternal Father 
was to ‘send’ Him.—The ‘commandment’ given by the Father 
to the Son as to what He should teach and do, was not a 
commandment in which the Son had no part but to obey. 
It was simply the charge or commission arranged in the cov- 
enant of redemption, by all three Persons in the Trinity, 
which the Son was as willing to execute as the Father was 
willing to give.’’* 

The commandment of which He speaks particularly is 
that of life everlasting. ‘The words He spoke are the words 
of life, as Peter said, ““Thou hast the words of eternal life.” 
Beginning with the third chapter we have followed the great 
unfoldings of that life which He came to reveal, and finally 
we read in His great prayer that the Father has given Him 
power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as 
many as the Father has given Him. 

With this statement the public ministry of our Lord as 
recorded in this Gospel ends. With the next chapter we 
enter into that part of the Gospel where we find our Lord 
alone with those given to Him by the Father, His eleven . 
disciples. 


*Dean Bourgon. 


244 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


CHAPTER XIil 


The structure of this Gospel has been compared with the 
three divisions of Israel’s earthly sanctuary. ‘There was 
an outer court, a holy part and the holy of holies. The first 
twelve chapters have been likened to the outer court. Our 
Lord moved in the midst of the mass of Jews, surrounded 
by His enemies, bearing witness to Himself, manifesting His 
glory in the signs of power, and hated by the great number 
of Jews. And now He leaves them behind and gathers His 
disciples about Himself to address them. He is in the holy 
part in fellowship with His own. The holy of holies is 
the seventeenth chapter. 

Every reader of the New Testament knows that chapters 
Xlll-xvii are peculiar to this Gospel; what we find here 
recorded is not mentioned in the preceding Gospels. That 
these great words of our Lord were known to Matthew no 
one doubts. He belonged to the twelve and was present in 
the place where our Lord had gathered His disciples. Why 
did he not put these words, and the occurrence of the feet 
washing into his record?’ ‘The answer is not difficult to find. 
Matthew wrote about our Lord as King; his Gospel is the 
Gospel of the kingdom. There was no place in his Gospel 
to give an account of what took place between the Lord and 
His disciples. Nor could these sayings of our Lord be right- 
fully embodied in the other two synoptic Gospels. The Holy 
Spirit did not permit their record in the Gospels of Matthew, 
Mark and Luke, but reserved the writing for the pen of John. 
In this Gospel with its great message as to His Deity and the 
eternal life those receive who believe on Him, we shall find 
that the teachings He gives to His disciples are but an ex- 
pansion of the truth concerning eternal life, what it is, what 
goes with it, prayer, fruit-bearing, and the gift of the Holy 
Spirit and His mission on earth during the physical absence 
of our Lord. 

On the other hand, many sayings and events of the days 
preceding the sacrificial death of our Lord, recorded in the 
Synoptics are not found in the fourth Gospel. ‘The parables 
relating to the kingdom are omitted. John has nothing to 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 3. iiiip 245 


say about the Pharisees and Sadducees tempting the Lord, 
nor does He mention the public charge against these leaders, 
as given in Matthew xxiii. Still more significant is the 
omission of the entire Olivet Discourse. As we know, that 
discourse is a great prophecy, recorded in full only by Mat- 
thew, for the discourse contains the prophecy concerning the 
return of the King. Inasmuch as John’s Gospel records the 
message of our Lord as to salvation, the gift of eternal life, 
the gift of the Holy Spirit, anticipating the Church, the one 
flock (John x), the visible and personal return of the Lord 
for the regathering of Israel and the judgment of the nations 
is not embodied in this Gospel. Instead of these prophetic 
teachings, so prominent in the Synoptics, we find in this 
Gospel a new promise, given to His eleven disciples, when 
He spoke to them about the Father’s house and assured 
them, “‘I will come again and receive you unto myself, that 
where I am, there ye may be also.” 

Nor do we read anything in this Gospel about the insti- 
tution of the Lord’s supper. Some commentators say that 
John thought it needless to repeat this account, because 
each of the preceding Gospels give it, and Paul also recorded 
it in the Epistle to the Corinthians. Such a statement 
makes John the author of the Gospel and not the Holy Spirit. 

There is a good reason why neither baptism nor the Lord’s 
supper are mentioned in this Gospel. These two ordi- 
nances are omitted in this document in which salvation and 
eternal life are taught, showing that neither has anything 
to do with the gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our 
Lord. The Holy Spirit anticipated the time when in ritual- 
istic Christendom ordinances would be proclaimed as neces- 
sary to salvation, and that without the sacraments, duly 
administered, eternal life would be impossible. 

Verses 1-5. Passover was about to take place. The 
hour had come, the hour of His suffering, His death and resur- 
rection, the hour that He should depart out of this world, 
which knew Him not, and return to the Father. That 
hour was fixed before the foundation of the world in the 
eternal counsels of the Godhead. He knew this hour from 
the beginning; nothing could happen to Him till this hour 
came. We heard Him say in this Gospel, ‘“‘Mine hour is not 


246 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


yet come.” But now the great and solemn hour had come. 
He knew it from the beginning. He knew the hour in His 
boyhood, and when He read His own Hebrew Scriptures He 
saw the hour of the cross on every page. He knew it in His 
youth, when toiling in the carpenter shop of Nazareth. He 
knew it at the time of His baptism, and all along in His 
gracious ministry He knew the hour, and now it had come. 

In connection with this we find a most tender statement, 
*“Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved 
them unto the end.” All along they had been the objects 
of His love. He knew what they were in themselves. He 
knew that in a few hours they would forsake Him and Peter 
would deny Him, yet He loved them unto the end. His love 
was undiminished. They were Hisown. He had come unto 
His own and His own received Him not (i:11). But here 
are those who are His own in a higher sense of the word. 
Of these eleven disciples He says later in His great prayer, 
“The men which Thou gavest Me out of the world.”” Those 
who believe on Him, accept Him, trust Him and serve Him 
are His own; as born again they are not of the world, even 
as He is not of the world. Yet believers though not of the 
world yet are still in the world, surrounded by evil. In 
this world they have tribulation, but His love towards His 
own remains always the same. His love passeth knowledge. 
And now He is in an act of deepest condescension to demon- 
strate that love and show symbolically the continuation of 
that love, even unto the end, till they are brought home to 
be with Him. 

The supper was in progress. It was not the supper called 
“The Lord’s Supper,” but the ordinary Passover supper, 
which the Lord ate with His disciples. Before we read of 
His act of love and condescension, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s 
son, is brought to our attention. ‘Twice we read of him in 
this chapter. Here is the record that the devil had put it 
into his heart to betray the Lord. Before our Lord had 
announced that one of the twelve was a devil (chapter 
vi:70). He was the only one among the disciples who did 
not believe on Jesus as Lord. He called Him, Rabbi, or 
Master. Judas Iscariot did not believe in the Deity of Christ 
and underneath his unbelief was sin; he loved money, he 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 247 


was a thief. Yielding thus to sin, living in sin, rejecting the 
matchless love of Him in whose outward fellowship he walked, 
whose acts of power and mercy he beheld, he became the will- 
ing tool of the devil. ‘“The devil having now put into the heart 
of Judas,’ means literally, “‘the devil having already dropped 
into the heart of Judas.”’ The seed had been sown in the un- 
believing heart of this man of sin, the son of perdition. The 
devil probably had done this at the anointing by Mary 
(Matt. xxvi:14). 

Judas was present at the washing of the feet; he was present 
during the supper, and after the Lord had given him the 
sop, Satan actually entered into him. After that he went 
out into the night, that night of eternal woe and darkness. 
And now before we see our Lord rising from the supper and 
girding Himself for service, we are reminded once more of 
His Person and His knowledge, “Jesus knowing that the 
Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was 
come from God and went to God.” We believe this state- 
ment is here introduced to show forth the greatness of His 
loving condescension. He who is one with the Father, who 
came from God, went back to God, who is God and in whose 
hands are all things, stooped down to wash the feet of the 
creature. 

Everything is minutely described. First, He arose from 
the supper. None of them knew what He was about to do. 
Then He laid aside His garments, that is the long loose, 
flowing outer garment, which would have hindered Him in 
performing what He was about to do. Then He took a towel 
and girded Himself. He garbed Himself as a servant ready 
to do a servant’s work. 

Then He took a basin, filled it with water, and began to 
wash the disciples’ feet, and wiping them with the towel 
with which He was girded. Jeetwashing was a rite of hos- 
pitality, as we learn from different passages in the Old Tes- 
tament. Immediately after a guest presented himself at 
the tent door, it was customary to offer the necessary mate- 
rials for washing the feet (Gen. xviii:4, xix:2, xx1v:32, xliv: 
24; Judges xix:21). It was considered an act of humility 
and affection. But who can describe the scene before us, 


248 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


kneeling at His disciples’ feet and in unfathomable love serv- 
ing them in this manner! 

Verses 6-11. Probably He had washed the feet of several 
disciples before He came to Peter. It was too much for 
Peter, to see Him, at whose feet He had fallen and cried out, 
“Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man,” to see His 
holy Lord ready to take his feet into His hands and wash 
them. ‘“‘Dost Thou wash my feet?” ‘The emphasis must 
be placed on the word ‘“‘Thou.” Chrysostom says Peter 
meant, ‘‘With those hands with which Thou hast opened 
eyes, cleansed lepers and raised the dead?’ 

He receives as an answer from the Lord the information 
that His action in its true meaning was unknown to Peter. 
“What I do Thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know 
afterward.” ‘The application is first of all to what the Lord 
was doing here; the afterward means the time when the 
Holy Spirit had come and made the things of Christ more 
fully known to their hearts. But the application in a wider 
sense cannot be denied. Many things are happening in the 
lives of God’s people, losses, suffering of various descrip- 
tions, strange and unexplainable providences, mysterious 
leadings. How often it is true, ‘What He does now we do 
not know,” but it is equally true, ‘‘We shall know after- 
ward,” and all will be known by us, that it was all-wise, 
all-merciful, all-loving, yea, that all things worked together 
for good. But Peter did not profit by these words; he did 
not hold forth his feet so that the Lord might wash them. 
He withdrew more fully and said, *‘In no wise shalt Thou 
wash my feet forever.” He refused completely. Then the 
Lord told him, “‘If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with 
Me.” But let us see, before showing the deeper meaning 
of this impressive scene, what Peter answered and what the 
Lord said in reply. Peter, when he heard these words, 
went to the other extreme. When he heard it was a question 
of having part with Christ, he burst out with the request, 
“Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” 
To this the Lord answered, “He that is washed (bathed) 
needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit; 
and ye are clean, but not all. For He knew who should 
betray Him; therefore said He, Ye are not all clean.” 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 249 


That all this has a deeper meaning than the literal action 
of our Lord appears on the surface. The statement of our 
Lord that they would know the meaning afterward makes 
this clear. And now that the Holy Spirit has come we know 
what the washing of the disciples’ feet symbolizes. In this 
Gospel we read much of water and of blood. Blood is for 
atonement, water is for purification. In the first epistle of 
John we also read of water and blood, “He that came by 
water and blood, not in water only, but in water and blood” 
(1 John v:6). 

It is His precious blood which washes our sins away; but 
it is the water which cleanses those who belong to Him. 
Out of His pierced side came blood and water (chapter xix: 
34), the emblems of atonement and cleansing. In washing 
the disciples’ feet, when our Lord said to Peter that all had 
been washed, or as this word indicates (bathed), and were 
clean every whit, He meant by it the new birth by water 
(the Word) and the Spirit. They had believed on Him and 
were born again, except Judas, who was meant when He 
said, “but notall.”” Weread in Titus iii1:5, “Not by works of 
righteousness which we have done, but according to His 
mercy He saved us by the bath of regeneration and renewing 
of the Holy Spirit.””. This great work is done once and for 
all; it cannot be repeated, just as the natural birth cannot 
be repeated with the same individual. 

He washed the disciples’ feet, not their hands. Hands are 
for work and feet for walking. As the believer walks in an 
evil age he contracts defilement, and this interrupts our 
fellowship with Him. We therefore need cleansing. This 
He has graciously provided and the washing of the feet typi- 
fies this need. ‘To accomplish this He uses His Word. It 
is the great truth which the Apostle Paul states in Ephesians: 
“Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it; that He 
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water 
by the Word” (Eph. v:25-26). We must come to Him with 
our sins and failures, with our imperfect walk and our de- 
filement, and place ourselves into His loving hands as the 
disciples placed their feet into His hands. He searches us 
by His Spirit and cleanses us, so that we can have part with 
Him in fellowship. ‘This necessitates from our side heart- 


250 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


searching, self-judgment and confession. If this is not 
practiced we may be saved, but we know nothing of real 
fellowship with Him, and are at a distance. “If we confess 
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and 
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”’ ‘‘My little children, 
these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any 
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 
the righteous” (1 John i and ii). It is His blessed work as 
advocate that He cleanses us by the washing of water by the 
Word and restores us to His fellowship. ‘“The great prac- 
tical truth,” says another, “in these words ought to be 
carefully noted and treasured up by all believers. Once 
joined to Christ and cleansed in His blood, they are com- 
pletely absolved and free from all spot and guilt, and are 
counted without blame before God. But all this they need 
every day, as they walk through the world, to confess their 
daily failures, and sue for daily pardon. They require, in 
short, a daily washing of their feet, over and above the great 
washing of justification, which is theirs the moment they 
first believe. He that neglects this daily washing is a very 
questionable and doubtful kind of a Christian.” Luther 
remarks pithily, ‘“The Devil allows no Christian to reach 
heaven with clean feet all the way.” 

May we know and use the great and loving provision made 
for us who belong to Him—the washing of water by the Word 
which the Holy Spirit applies in answer to the Advocacy 
of our Lord with the Father. 

Verses 12-17. The act of the washing of the disciples’ feet 
was ended. The towel with which He had girded Himself 
was laid aside, and the garment, the loose flowing robe which 
He had discarded to be free for His service, was once more 
puton by Him. After He sat down again in their midst, He 
asked the question “Know ye what I have done to you?” 
There was probably a brief pause; no answer came from the 
disciples. They knew that He had washed their feet; the 
deeper meaning they understood not. And so He continued, 
“Ye call me the Master (or Teacher) and the Lord; and ye 
say well, for so I am.” According to the original text 
He did not speak of Himself as “fa Master” and “fa Lord,” 
but the definite article is connected with the words ‘‘Master”’ 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 251 


and “Lord.” He is the Master and the Lord—so I am, He 
said. The humble service performed had been performed 
by one who was not only fully conscious of His greatness but 
who in the very service claimed that greatness. Before 
in this Gospel, He had witnessed to His Lordship in the 
presence of the unbelieving Jews, and here He bears witness 
to it again in the presence of the twelve. He sanctions and 
fully endorses the disciples in their calling Him the Lord. 
It was faith in them which honored Him in this way. 

Well may we think here of the unscriptural habit which so 
many Christians have of using constantly the name “Jesus,” 
never speaking of Him as the Lord, or of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Certain movements, like the Pentecostalists, men 
and women evangelists, all kinds of cults and fanatical sects, 
never speak of Him as the Lord, but with an astonishing spirit 
of familiarity they speak of “Jesus” in a sentimental way. 
The same is true of the literature of the destructive criticism. 
They also speak and write about “Jesus” and do not own 
Him in His Lordship. ‘The Holy Spirit, who is here to glorify 
Christ will never lead any person to use the earthly name 
“Jesus.” ‘“‘Wherefore I give you to understand, that no 
man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, 
and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the 
Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians xii:3). 

“If I then, the Lord and the Master, washed your feet, 
ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given 
you an example, that ye should do as I have done unto you.” 
The text does not say “‘your teacher” or “‘your Lord.”? That 
might mean that He was their Lord and Teacher by their 
own selection; but He said, “If I then, the Lord and the 
Master (or Teacher), washed your feet.” Then follows the 
command “Ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.”’ Is 
this a command which is to be literally understood and 
practiced? Is feet-washing an ordinance like “the Lord’s 
supper” or “‘Baptism’”? ‘The only other reference to feet- 
washing in the literal sense isin 1 Timothy v:10. There can 
be no question that it means in that passage not a religious 
ceremony but an act of hospitality. It was in the fourth 
century that feet-washing as a religious act is mentioned for 
the first time in ecclesiastical history, It was then practiced 


252 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


in connection with baptism. It is still practiced in some 
monasteries of the Greek Orthodox Church. The Romish 
Church also practices it in a strange way. The “‘would-be 
head” of the church and vice-regent of Christ, the Pope, 
once a year on the so-called “Maundy-Thursday,” the 
Thursday before Easter, washes the feet of certain poor men, 
we believe twelve, who are specially selected and prepared 
for the occasion. ‘Then there are certain small Protestant 
bodies, which practice feet washing. ‘That the feet-washing 
is not to be literally carried out is demonstrated by the silence 
of the Epistles about this act. Both Baptism and the Lord’s 
Supper are repeatedly mentioned in the New Testament, and 
their literalness as ordinances maintained; the Church has 
practiced both ordinances from the very beginning. Butthe 
Epistles have nothing to say about feet-washing as an 
ordinance. Furthermore if our Lord had meant a literal 
feet-washing, why did He ask the disciples ““Know you what 
I have done to your’ He had reference to the spiritual 
meaning and not to the literal act. 

The feet-washing has a true spiritual meaning. He served 
them in love and in humility, so should we serve one another. 
He had given them an example. He had taught the same 
in words before as He did in the washing of the feet. “‘Who- 
soever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 
and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your 
servant; even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered 
unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for 
many” (Matt. xx:26-28). As He had waited on them, so 
should we wait on each other; as He had taken the lowest 
place in their midst, though Lord of all, so should we take 
the lowest place before each other; as He had ministered, so 
should we minister to each other. But we must go still 
deeper. Inasmuch as the washing of the disciples’ feet 
signifies, as we stated before, the cleansing of the disciples 
feet from defilement, the work of Christ for His own by 
washing them by the cleansing of water, the Word of God, 
the Lord teaches us that what He does for us in His gracious 
ministrations, that we should also do to each other. If a 
fellow Christian has soiled his feet, has sinned, we must go 
after him in love and humility to restore him. ‘Brethren, 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 253 


if a man be overtaken in any fault, ye that are spiritual 
restore such an one in a spirit of meekness” (Gal. vi:1). 
This is true feet-washing. In the restoration of a brother in 
Christ who has failed, not the sword is needed to cut and to 
wound, but the basin and the towel, the humble, gracious 
service. But that needs faith, self-denial and deep affection, 
such which the Holy Spirit alone can impart. And therefore 
He said, ‘For I have given you an example, that ye should do 
as J have done unto you’’—I have shown you symbolically 
in washing your feet the cleansing which you need and which 
I perform for you; do the same to each other. 

Another ‘“‘verily, verily’ follows. The servant is not 
greater than his lord, nor is he that is sent greater than he 
that sent him. It is a solemn remembrance charge that the 
servant must follow the example of the Teacher, the sent one, 
the example of him that sent. Love and humility are the 
two great features in this blessed scene in the upper room, 
and love and humility must be reproduced in the servant of 
Christ. And the Lord who spoke these words and pro- 
nounced a blessing—“If ye know these things happy are ye 
if ye do them’’—knew in His divine omniscience how soon 
those who claim to be his ministers would manifest hatred 
instead of love, pride instead of humility; and so it is still, 
but not without the exception of many who through grace 
follow His gracious example. The words, “‘If ye know these 
things happy are ye if ye do them,” guard strongly against 
the literal interpretation of the literal feet-washing. Know 
what things? That He had washed their feet? Of course 
they knew that. Therefore it is the spiritual meaning which 
is to be known and to be practiced. 

Verses 18-20. ‘The eighteenth verse evidently takes up the 
statement given by our Lord in the tenth verse. He had 
chosen twelve and He had washed the feet of all His twelve 
disciples, but He knew whom He had chosen. He knew Judas 
who was about to betray Him. He had chosen him as a 
disciple, knowing that he had a devil (chapter vi:70). 

And Judas Iscariot had never known Him as Lord; he 
never spoke of Him as the Lord, hence Judas was not born 
of God. But why did the Lord select him to such a place 
of honor? Why, knowing his character as He did, did He 


254 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


make him one of the twelve, one of His constant companions? 
The answer is given by Himself and we do not need to spec- 
ulate or try to reason to find an answer to the “Why?” He 
had chosen him an apostle ‘‘that the Scripture may be ful- 
filled, He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel 
against Me” (Psalm xli:9). It is unfortunate that the verses 
are divided as they are. The better division is to put the 
first sentence of verse 19 over to the preceding verse and 
read, “He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel 
against Me, now I tell you before it come. That when it is 
come to pass ye may believe that lam.” ‘The fulfillment of 
His prediction based on the prophecy of the forty-first 
Psalm would prove to them His Deity, that He is the om- 
niscient AM. Psalm xli refers to the treachery of Ahithopel 
towards David, and is therefore a prophetic type of Judas’s 
treachery against David’s Son and David’s Lord. The words 
which follow in verse 20 were spoken by Him to comfort His 
true disciples and to show them that they were unaffected 
by Judas’s coming betrayal and horrible fall. 

Verses 21-30. As the Apostle John does not record the 
institution of the Lord’s supper, the question arises at what 
point did it occur? ‘There has been much written on this 
question, and also on Judas’s presence at the supper. It may 
have been at this time that the Lord’s supper took place, for 
there seems to be a pause between the twentieth and twenty- 
first verses. And now again we see Him troubled in spirit. 
(See xi:33 and xii:27). Great distress is upon Him. But 
that distress was not on account of Himself, a feeling of self- 
pity and fear. ‘These emotions had no place in the holy soul 
of our Lord. ‘The distress was produced by His own holiness, 
and love in behalf of Judas about to betray Him. He loved 
Judas. On the other hand, in His holiness He was troubled 
over the awful sin which His disciple was about to commit, 
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray 
Me (or give Me up).” We behold the anxious looks of the 
disciples. ‘They looked at each other; they were puzzled 
and did not know of whom He spake. Evidently the heart 
of Judas was hardened to such an extent that no blush on his 
cheek, no paleness of face, not a single change of feature was 
noticeable to the eleven; as they looked into the face of Judas 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 259 


they saw he was calm and undisturbed, yet all was planned 
in his sinful, unbelieving heart. 

According to oriental custom the Lord and the twelve were 
not sitting on chairs around a table; they were reclining, 
and leaning on the bosom of the Lord, next to His heart, was 
the beloved disciple, none other than John the writer of this 
Gospel. He speaks of himself for the first time here as the 
beloved disciple. Four times more this term is employed by 
John. In all, the phrase ‘whom Jesus loved”’ is found seven 
times in this Gospel, twice it is used in connection with 
Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and five times it refers to John. 
Why the Lord Jesus had singled him out for His special 
love we do not know. John has been charged with egotism 
in speaking of himself thus. Such a charge is unfounded. 
He wrote under the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit; it was 
He who put this statement into his pen. And let it be noticed, 
while John undoubtedly loved the Lord, it is not his love for 
the Lord, but the love of the Lord for John, which the 
Spirit of God reveals. ‘Then Peter turned to John. It is the 
same earnest, zealous, impetuous Peter. He is agitated over 
the words which the Lord had spoken; he must know at 
once. He requests John to find out from the Lord who it is. 
And John whispered to Him, “‘Lord, who is it?” A solemn 
moment it must have been. Then the Lord answered the 
request. Was it spoken in a loud voice? We rather think 
it was whispered to John. “He it is, to whom I shall give 
the sop, when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped 
the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.” It 
is an oriental custom to dip a choice morsel of bread or meat 
into the sauce, and pass it as a special token of kindness to a 
favored guest. This our Lord did to Judas. No doubt it 
was a loving act from the side of our Lord, His last appeal 
to the heart of Judas. The betrayal had been planned by 
this disciple. It has been suggested that Judas knew of 
different attacks upon the life of our Lord and that He 
escaped; that he thought that He would also escape on this 
occasion, while he would reap a reward to gratify his besetting 
sin; and afterward Judas might have looked for mercy after 
his deed had been unsuccessful. We cannot be sure of this 
but it is not unlikely that the liar from the beginning, who had 


3 


256 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


put it into his heart to betray Christ, used some such de- 
ceptive suggestion. 

“And after the sop Satan entered into him.” He had 
Mfejected the winning love and the warning words, and now 
- Satan got full and complete possession of him. All along 

Judas had been under the influence of his master, whom he 
served instead of the Lord, whose lovely face of grace he 
beheld and whose works of power and mercy he had seen for 
three years. But now after he had received that love-token 
from the Christ whom he so willfully rejected, without 
yielding to repentance, then Satan entered into him. That 
awful being possessed and controlled him now fully. As 
are many today who love sin, who love darkness more than 
light, who also have yielded themselves completely as tools 
to Satan. 

“Then said Jesus unto him, What thou doest do quickly.” 
These words have been variously interpreted. It is a solemn 
sentence for it announces for Himself that His life down here 
was soon to end, while for the deluded Judas, Satan’s in- 
strument, it announced everlasting, never-ending wrath. 
Some have suggested that the Lord desired to hasten this 
act of consummated wickedness; but this is not true. He 
knew all that would take place and the act which Judas was 
to perform; He knew that Satan had entered into him. The 
murderer from the beginning was about to use man to kill 
the Lord of glory. Judas had hardened his heart; there was 
no remedy for him; he had set his heart on doing it and 
therefore the Lord said, ‘“Go on and do it; there need be 
no delay; it needs to be done this very night and I am ready 
for it all.” 

All the disciples heard this; it was not whispered into the 
ear of John. Not one of the disciples knew the real truth 
of what was meant. None imagined that Judas was to 
do the deed he did that night. Because Judas had the bag, 
they thought it was a command to buy the necessary things 
for the feast, or that some love-deed was contemplated by the 
Lord. ‘The verse is interesting as it gives valuable informa- 
tion. ‘The verse shows that the Lord Jesus Christ in His 
humiliation did not make use of His omnipotent power to 
supply the daily needs of Himself and His disciples by a 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 257 


miracle. We know from other Scriptures that He who had 
become poor for our sakes received from others means to 
keep Him. ‘‘And certain women, which had been healed of 
evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of 
whom went seven demons; and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, 
Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which 
ministered unto Him of their substance” (Luke viii:2, 3). 
Then we learn that our Lord, out of these gifts which Judas 
kept, ministered to the poor. It was done, like all His 
gracious works, unostentatiously. In the sermon on the 
mount He taught ‘‘But when thou doest alms, let not thy 
left hand know what thy right hand doeth,” a command 
which the believer follows gladly. Whatever He preached 
He also practiced. Many times before He must have given 
instruction to Judas what to give and where to give it, 
without the others knowing anything about it. ‘The surmise 
of the disciples suggests this also. And all along Judas was 
the thief. Well, remarks another, ‘‘Let us recognize the 
snares which attend the possession, fingering and handling of 
money. ‘The man who has care of the money in our Lord’s 
little company of followers, is the very man who makes 
shipwreck of his soul forever, through the love of money.” 
*‘Give me neither poverty nor riches” should be a Christian’s 
frequent prayer (Prov. xxx:8). 

Then follows the mournful record ‘‘He then having received 
the sop went out immediately; and it was night.” Judas 
realized now that the Lord knew all his dark and sinister 
plans. He disappeared at once. He could no longer remain 
in His presence. May he not have feared a further dis- 
closure from the side of the Lord and an interference from 
the other disciples? We do not know. He left and sig- 
nificantly the eye-witness, the beloved disciple, tells us “It 
was night.” It was night physically. It was night for 
Judas. He went out into that night and hunted up the 
enemies of the Lord to receive the thirty pieces of silver and 
to give them the needed information. That night on earth, 
the night of sin, ended for Judas when he committed suicide. 
But that did not end his night. His soul went “‘to his place,” 
the place of outer, eternal and conscious darkness.: In that 


place, that eternal prison house, he is forever and ever with 


258 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


no hope in all eternity. From the Gospel of Matthew we 
learn that our Lord sent after him that wail of deepest 
sorrow, when He said “It had been good for that man if he 
had never been born” (Matthew xxvi:24). What did our 
Lord mean? If it is true that man’s soul is not immortal; 
if it is true that the wicked man is annihilated soul and 
body; if it is true that the wicked man has a second chance; 
if it is true that there is a “‘reconciliation” for all the lost and 
that all the wicked will be finally saved, then our Lord spoke 
a meaningless sentence. But there are not a few errorists 
among Christians who have accepted the foolish invention 
that Judas will finally, after ages of punishment, get to 
heaven. 

Verses 31-35. One cart easily imagine how the departure 
of Judas Iscariot must have relieved our Lord and cleared 
the atmosphere in the upper room where they were as- 
sembled. And now Judas was gone and only the eleven 
remained behind, and they were all believers in His Messiah- 
ship; they knew Him as Lord. He is free to express Himself, 
for the restraint which was upon Him ever since He had 
stooped to wash the disciples’ feet was removed. Then He 
said, ‘‘Now has the Son of Man been glorified, and God has 
been glorified in Him. If God has been glorified in Him, 
God also shall glorify Him in Himself, and shall straight- 
way glorify Him” (literal translation). The late Dr. Lyman 
Abbott in his Commentary on John, makes the following 
comment: ““The phrase ‘Son of Man’ was a common Jewish 
designation of the Messiah, and would have been so under- 
stood by His disciples. ‘They had come up to Jerusalem 
anticipating the coronation of the Messiah as King of the 
Jews. They had entered Jerusalem in triumph, hailing 
Him as such. Two of his disciples on the way had 
come to Him privately for the best offices (Matthew xx:21, 
28). ‘The twelve even had quarreled for pre-eminence as they 
were sitting down at the table (Luke xxii:24). The immediate 
object of Christ in the discourse which follows is to prepare 
them for the terrible revulsion of feeling, the shock of dis- 
appointment and despair which to-morrow had in store for 
them. He begins, therefore, with the declaration that the 
glory of the Messiah is already an accomplished fact, He 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 259 


had been glorified; by His incarnation, His life of loving 
self-sacrifice, His patience and His love; and in His life and 
character God had been glorified. Then He adds a prophecy 
of further glory; not that of death: not that of resurrection; 
not that of the ascension; but that again of being one with 
the Father. The Father shall glorify Him in Himself. 
He foresees and foretells the answer to His prayer: ‘Glorify 
Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had 
with Thee before the world was,’ and for this there is to be 
no waiting; no delay for an earthly coronation. ‘There 
must be a long interval of redeeming work before He can 
see the travail of His soul and be satisfied; before every knee 
will bow; before He can reign as King of kings and Lord 
of lords; but for this the Father will not wait. Immediately 
that His work of self-sacrifice is over, He will return to the 
Father, to share with Him the glory which He had from the 
foundation of the world.’’* 

While this comment has some good suggestions it misses 
the mark in not emphasizing the Cross, the atoning work 
of our Lord, as that which glorifies the Son of Man, and in 
which He gloried. When He speaks here of being glorified 
it has the same meaning as in chapter xii when He said at the 
occasion of the inquiring Greeks, that the Son of Man is to 
be glorified. The context shows that it was His death, 
the death of the corn of wheat falling into the ground which 
He meant by being glorified. It is the Cross which is before 
Him again, the Cross and its ever blessed and unfathomably 
deep work, in which the Son of Man is glorified and God’ 
glorified in Him. The glorification which He. beholds, 
yea, longs for, is His atoning death as the sinner’s substitute, 
the death through which God would receive the highest 
glory, in which God’s Holiness, Righteousness, Mercy, 
Love and Grace would be so wonderfully demonstrated and 
glorified. It is refreshing to see how our Lord, in looking 
on toward the cross, estimates that cross as the most glorious 
part of His work in incarnation; and so it is. 

The tense of the verb, ““Now has the Son of Man been. 
glorified” is not a difficulty. In John xvii:4 He also speaks 


ee ee 


*Commentary on John, page 170. 


260 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


of having finished the work, yet the work was then still 
unfinished. He also prayed, “I am no longer in the world,” 
yet He was still here. He spoke these words in anticipation 
of the accomplished fact. 

But what does it mean, ‘‘God shall also glorify Him in 
Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him’? This un- 
questionably refers to His own glorification by the Father, 
after His finished work, when He raised Him from the dead 
and gave Him glory. It is that acquired glory of the Son of 
Man with which God rewarded Him by putting Him at His 
right hand, by making Him the heir of all things, the glori- 
fication which the Holy Spirit so blessedly reveals in Ephe- 
sians 1, Philippians ii and Hebrews i. 

And now that Judas had left, He addressed His own by the 
endearing term ‘‘Little children.” Judas, who rejected His 
Lordship, was not one of His children. Only those are the 
“little children”? who are born again. Nor are the Unitarian 
deniers of Christ, the Christian Scientists, the Spiritists, the 
Theosophists, the Destructive Critics, and other rejectors of 
the Deity of Christ, children of God. 

“Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye 
shall seek Me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, 
ye cannot come; so now I say to you.” He announced in 
this brief statement the fact that in a very short time He 
would leave them and they would be left alone. Then they 
would wish for Him; want Him, and seek Him. He had said 
to the Jews, “I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, and shall 
die in your sins; whither I go ye cannot come” (viii:21). 
He reminded them of it, that He had spoken such words 
to the unbelieving Jews. They were also applicable to them 
but in a far different sense. They could not follow Him 
to that place, for He was going back to the Father and to the 
Father’s house, while they were to remain here. But soon 
He dispels the gloom which must have come upon them, 
when He spoke these mystifying words; there He promises 
His coming again for His own to take them to the place 
where He is. But in the meantime He gave them a new 
commandment to be kept by His own while awaiting His 
return, “That ye love one another; as I have loved you, 
that ye also love one another.” 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 261 


This commandment is not identical with the one given in 
the law, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Lev. 
xix:18). That was the commandment given to the nation 
Israel. A new relationship is here established, that of the 
family of God, later revealed as the Church, the body of 
Christ. ‘The next verse shows that this new commandment 
is given to those who are His disciples, His own, who belong 
to Him, “By this shall all men know that ye are My dis- 
ciples, if ye have love one to another.”’ ‘The measure of that 
love is to be His own love. Nowhere in the law is there such 
a command; it is indeed a new commandment, for that new 
relationship which He called into existence by His death and 
resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit, who forms this 
relationship. ‘The first Epistle of John makes it a test of 
the family relation, and the Holy Spirit through the beloved 
disciple enlarges and presses home these blessed words of our 
Lord. ‘‘Here is our Lord leaving the world, speaking for the 
last time, and giving His last charge to the disciples. ‘The 
very first subject He takes up and presses on them is the 
great duty of loving each other, and that with no common 
love, but after the same patient, tender unwearied manner 
that He has loved them. How vast the extent of Christian 
love ought to be! The measure and standard of it is the 
love wherewith Christ loved us.”* And that love was a 
love unto death. Alas! how little we think of it! How 
loving and forgiving He is! How impatient and often un- 
loving and even unforgiving His own are, never remembering 
that it is written, ‘““Forbearing one another, and forgiving 
one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as 
Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Col. i1i:13). It is only 
as we keep ourselves in His love, and remember His matchless 
grace towards us, that we can be enabled to manifest that 
love one to another. But we shall find these words again 
(chap. xv). 

Verses 36-38. Then Peter’s voice breaks in once more, 
even in this solemn moment. He speaks for his fellow 
disciples. ‘‘Lord, whither goest Thou?” With all He had 
spoken about going up to Jerusalem, to be delivered into the 


*Thoughts on John. 


262 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


hands of the Gentiles, to be crucified and raised from the 
dead, they did not understand. They still were in darkness 
about this, hence Peter’s question to find out where He was 
going. And He answered, ‘‘Whither I go, thou canst not 
follow me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterward.” He 
was going to the place in glory where none of His own could 
follow Him at once, but to which all would follow Him after- 
wards, for this is the glorious goal of His own, to be withHim, 
where He is. Peter’s answer still more demonstrates his 
ignorance of what the Lord meant; his answer is self-con- 
fident and presumptuous. ‘‘Lord, why cannot I follow Thee 
now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake.” It was the 
natural heart which revealed itself in this self-confident 
assertion, though he meant well and showed thereby his 
attachment to the Lord. He thought highly of himself, of 
his courage and determination. He did not know his utter 
weakness and helplessness, nor did he remember that the 
Lord had told him before, that Satan had desired to sift him 
as wheat, and that sifting was about to take place. The 
Lord in His divine omniscience tells Peter what would happen 
that very night, and that the next sunrise would find Peter 
bitterly weeping. ‘‘Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake? 
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow, till 
thou hast denied Me thrice.”? What astonishment these 
words must have brought to Peter’s heart, perhaps more 
than that, gloom to him and to all the disciples. And so it 
came true; he denied his Lord, as the Lord had told him. 
Yet how marvelous His grace and kindness shine forth in all 
this. He knew what Peter would do; yet He loved him. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 263 


CHAPTER XIV 


Verses 1-3. We may imagine a brief pause between the 
last verse of the preceding chapter and the beginning of this 
new chapter. He had spoken another “‘Verily.”’ It con- 
cerned Peter’s coming denial. All must have weighed 
heavily upon the hearts and minds of the little company; 
each one must have felt that something was about to happen, 
which none of them could realize. Judas had gone out 
into the night; their Lord had spoken words which they were 
unable to grasp and to understand at the time they were 
spoken. That Peter, to whom they all looked as their 
spokesman, should deny Him thrice, when they all knew of 
his former confession, must have been still more troublesome 
to them. No doubt they were greatly troubled and per- 
plexed. Then His loving, gracious voice broke the silence 
as He continued His discourse: ‘‘Let not your heart be 
troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me.’ Wonderful 
words! In this awful hour of unparalleled events looming up, 
with Gethsemane, the betrayal, the denial, the mockeries, 
the cruel scourging and the shameful, painful death by 
crucifixion in full view, the Lord does not think of Himself. 
The heart trouble of His beloved disciples occupies His 
loving heart. Another one might have sought comfort; 
He seeks none, but instead comforts. Let not your heart be 
troubled! How precious it is to note that He did not say 
“hearts,” but ‘‘heart’’; it means that His loving comfort is 
for each individual heart. And God’s people at all times, 
ever since these words were penned by the beloved disciple, 
have turned to this chapter and appropriated in faith the 
precious words which He spoke. A very old Bible in the 
possession of the writer, used by numerous generations for 
centuries, shows many of the pages in the Old Testament so 
clean and perfect, that it looks as if they came from the 
printer’s press but yesterday. But the page which contains 
the fourteenth chapter of John is well-worn and is spotted 
by the teardrops of different generations. Let not your 
heart be troubled! It is, with the precious words which 
follow, the great anaesthetic of our great Physician. As a 


264 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


physician gives an anaesthetic to produce painlessness, so our 
Lord has His anaesthetic for the heart troubles, for the sor- 
rows and bereavements of His people. Thus He speaks still 
to our hearts, and with these words wipes our tears away and 
stills our troubled hearts. 

But faith is needed to receive and to enjoy this comfort. 
They believed on God, and He told them “‘believe also in Me.” 
He was about to be rejected by the nation, delivered into 
the hands of the Gentiles and to be crucified. It would 
stumble their faith as Jews in Him, the Messiah. ‘Therefore 
He said, as ye believe on God, believe in Me also. He claims 
for Himself the same faith and trust which belongs to God, 
which is perfectly right, for He is God. He was about to 
leave them and to go back to the Father; how necessary, 
then, to trust on Him, to believe on Him. Then follow 
some of the sweetest words which were spoken by Him: “In 
My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I 
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And 
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and 
receive you unto Myself, that where I am ye may be also.” 

What is the Father’s house? Let us remember that our 
Lord spoke of the temple as His Father’s house. When He 
cleansed the temple, He said: “Take these things hence, 
make not My Father’s house an house of merchandise” 
(11:16). But that earthly house, in which once He dwelt in 
visible glory, was the figure of another house. In fact, the 
earthly house which Israel possessed was patterned after 
that Moses had seen on the mountain (Acts vii:44 and Heb. 
vili:5). The places made with hands, that is, the earthly 
tabernacle with its outer court, the holy part and the Holy 
of Holies, were the figures of the true; there is a true taber- 
nacle which the Lord had pitched and not man (Heb.viii:2). 

This great universe is the great House of God (Heb. iii:4). 
In that great house there is, in the third heaven, the 
eternal dwelling place of the eternal God. ‘“‘Heaven is My 
throne and the earth is My footstool’ (Isa. Ixvi:1). That 
third heaven corresponds to the Holiest in the earthly taber- 
nacle, and the temple, which our Lord called ‘“My Father’s 
House.”” Into that place the Lord Jesus Christ went after 
His resurrection from among the dead; of this Father’s house, 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 265 


the glorious home, and the home for all the family of God, pur- 
chased by His blood and fitted for that home, He speaks 
now. He tells us that in that blessed home, the Father’s 
house, are many mansions. ‘The Greek word does not mean 
what we understand by that word, magnificent palaces. 
Even the original meaning of the English word “‘mansion”’ 
is not a place, but a palace to abide, a dwelling place.* ‘The 
same word is used again in. this chapter, in verse 23, and 
then it is translated “‘abode.”? Since olden times the word 
“mansions” has been interpreted as meaning different de- 
grees in glory. Chrysostom, Augustinus and many others 
taught this as it is still done by teachers, and often fanciful 
embellishments are added. They speak of the mansions 
as being located on different planets and stars, and 
that the most faithful on earth will receive the most glorious 
mansions in some star. All this has no Scriptural founda- 
tion. That there will be degrees in glory, different re- 
wards and crowns, every Christian knows, but this is not 
the teaching our Lord gives when He speaks of the Father’s 
house with its many mansions. ‘To be in the Father’s house 
with its eternal dwelling places is not the result of our 
worthiness as believers, but the fruit of His own blessed 
work on the cross. The Father’s house is for the children 
of God, born again; and even the youngest and the weakest 
believer belongs there. And then He assured them and 
us that we need not fear, but be perfectly at rest about it. 
**If it were not so I would have told you.”’ 

Next, He speaks of going back to the Father’s house to 
prepare a place for them: “I go to prepare a place for you.” 
This statement of our Lord has also been surrounded with 
many fanciful imaginations. Some teach that this prepara- 
tion of the place is now going on continually. But this is 
not the case. As long as He walked on earth, Paradise, the 
third heaven, was not fully prepared. His blessed atoning 
work on the cross opened the portals of the Father’s house, 
and there He has gone a forerunner; there He is as the Priest 
and Advocate of His people, and thus by His death, by His 
entrance there as the forerunner, by His presence in the 


*Like the French maison. 


266 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Father’s house, He has prepared the place for us. Yet 
there is a deeper meaning attached to this, when we think 
of the statement in Ephesians i:14 concerning “the redemp- 
tion of the purchased possession,” and of Hebrews ix:23, 
where it is written that the heavenly things had to be puri- 
fied with better sacrifices. Not alone earthly things were 
defiled by sin, but even the things in this great universe, 
the house of God, have been affected. He Himself by His 
atoning work and great victory has prepared heaven for 
the reception of His blood-bought children. Heaven, there- 
fore, is a prepared place for a prepared people. 

“And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again 
and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye 
may be also.” This is still more precious. He was about 
to leave them; they were to be left alone in the world. His 
going away was not a spiritual departure, but a physical 
one. In His resurrection, the body which He had offered 
on the cross came forth out of the tomb, and in that body 
He left the earth to go back to the Father. When He there- 
fore tells His eleven disciples ‘‘I will come again,” it surely 
cannot mean a spiritual coming again. Yet this is the 
teaching of a large number of commentaries, that “I will 
come again’ means His spiritual coming on the day of 
Pentecost in the person of the Holy Spirit, hence the teach- 
ing so widespread, that the second coming of Christ hap- 
pened when the Holy Spirit was given. But the Holy Spirit 
is the third Person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
the Son of God, is the second Person of the Trinity. How, 
then, can the promise of the second Person of the Trinity 
to come again mean the coming of the third Person? 

Another teaching is that when our Lord promised to come 
again and to receive His own unto Himself, so that they 
might be with Him, means the death of the believer. They 
tell us, when the Christian dies the Lord comes again, so 
that every day the coming of the Lord takes place hundreds 
of times, because hundreds of Christians die each day the 
world over. This error is clearly refuted by the fact that 
elsewhere in the New Testament the Spirit of God tells us 
that the believer’s death is not the Lord coming to the 
dying believer, but the death of a Christian means that he 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 267 


goes to be with the Lord; he goes in his disembodied spirit 
to be with Him. For the believer to be absent from the 
body means “present with the Lord,” and that is a con- 
scious presence. Soul sleep, between the death of the be- 
liever and the resurrection, is a miserable invention (2 Cor. 
v:1-8). Paul wrote to the Philippians: ‘‘For I am in a 
strait between two, having a desire to depart, and to be with 
Christ, which is far better.” 

And there is still another view placed upon this promise 
of our Lord. It is said that the Lord meant that afterward 
He would lift believers to share in Him the heavenly places, 
as revealed in the Epistle to the Ephesians. When He said: 
“T will receive you unto Myself,’? He meant, they tell us, 
to be seated in Christ in the heavenly places. This far- 
fetched theory does not need an answer. 

When our Lord told His disciples, “‘I will come again,” 
He meant only one thing, and that is His own, personal 
coming again. ‘These words cannot be logically explained 
in any other way. 

Here is an important and unique revelation. ‘The coming 
of the Lord, that is, His second Advent, is revealed in the 
Old Testament as a glorious, visible event. It is preceded 
by troubles, wars, different calamities and upheavals for 
Israel and the nations; even nature will be affected by it. 
He is predicted to come to judge the nations, to deliver the 
remnant of His people, to bring them to their own land, to 
cover that land with His glory, to establish His kingdom, 
to reign over the nations as King of kings, and to bring 
peace to the earth. Now what our Lord reveals about His 
second coming, reported in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, 
Mark and Luke) is nothing new. It is a restatement of 
what His Spirit taught in the Prophets and in the Psalms. 
What He predicts in the Olivet discourse is but a confirma- 
tion of what the Old Testament teaches about the second 
Advent. The great tribulation of which He speaks is the 
same tribulation recorded by Daniel and others, which did 
not happen in the year 70, but is that great tribulation which 
precedes His visible, personal and glorious return to earth. 
In other words, the references we have in the first three 
Gospels about His coming again all mean His personal and 


268 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


glorious return to the earth. The disciples are addressed 
there as representatives of the godly remnant of their nation 
at the end of this age. That remnant will wait for Him in 
the last days, and their hope is to see Him coming in the 
clouds of heaven to deliver them from the antichristian forces 
and to give them a promised kingdom, as Daniel states “the 
saints shall possess the kingdom,” not Church-saints, but 
Jewish saints. 

But here in John xiv the Lord gives a new and unique 
revelation; He speaks of something which no prophet had 
promised, or even could promise. Where is it written that 
this Messiah would come and instead of gathering His saints 
into an earthly Jerusalem, would take them to the Father’s 
house, to the very place where He is? It is something new. 
And let it be noticed in promising to come again, He ad- 
dresses the eleven disciples and tells them, ‘‘I will receive 
you unto Myself, that where I am ye may be also.” He 
speaks then of a coming which is not for the deliverance of 
the Jewish remnant, not of a coming to establish His king- 
dom over the earth, not a coming to judge the nations, but 
a coming which concerns only His own. Therefore He has 
nothing to say here about a preceding great tribulation, nor 
does He speak of signs on earth and in the heavens, nor does 
He describe a visible coming in-the clouds of heaven in 
power and great glory. All He says is: “‘I will come again 
and receive you unto Myself, that where I am ye may be 
also.”” We repeat this is a new and unique revelation. 

But if we had asked one of the eleven at that time to 
explain the meaning of the words of the Lord, none of their 
number would have been able to tell us what He meant 
and what that coming to be with Him is. ‘They were ignor- 
ant of it. And even after Pentecost Peter would not have 
been able to explain this promise; when he mentioned the 
return of Christ in Acts i11:19 it is His visible coming to 
earth, to bring the restoration promised by the. prophets, 
and not a coming to take His own to the place where He is. 

But the full meaning of the promise of our Lord to His 
eleven disciples was revealed through the Apostle Paul. 
To him was committed the truth about the Church as the 
body and the bride of Christ, and with it the revelation of 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 269 


the heavenly destiny of the Church. It was therefore fitting 
that he should also be the instrument to make known 
by revelation “that blessed hope’—the coming of the Lord 
for His saints. This revelation given to him is the expansion 
of the words of our Lord in the passage before us. It is 
found in 1 Thess. iv:15-18. When Paul says in this passage, 
that is was spoken by the Word of the Lord, he does not 
mean that he cites the prophetic Word in the Old Testa- 
ment, for nothing of this nature is found there. It was a 
direct word which he received from the Lord, revealing 
how the promise “I will come again and receive you unto 
Myself, that where I am ye may be also,” will be accom- 
plished. It is still the unfulfilled promise. Saints are wait- 
ing in glory for it, and their bodies are sleeping in the dust 
of the earth. The living believers are waiting for it. The 
day is surely coming when He who spoke these words will 
also fulfill them. Before the great tribulation, before the 
days of Antichrist, before the visible manifestation of Him- 
self takes place, He comes for His saints, to catch them up 
to meet Him in the air and to lead them into the Father’s 
house. 

Verses 4-7. The beautiful words of comfort and cheer had 
been spoken. Perhaps there was a brief pause before He con- 
tinued ‘‘And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” 
He had spoken to them before of His return to the Father’s 
house. But it seems His words now were mostly spoken to 
provoke further inquiry from their side. Let us remember 
that the Lord Jesus Christ is omniscient. He knew their 
hearts, their innermost thoughts, yea He knew their thoughts 
from afar off (Psalm cxxxix:2). To draw them out, and 
move them to questions He spoke these words. ‘Thomas then 
speaks. Three times we have the record of his words. In 
chapter xi:16, he manifested his devotion to the Lord when 
he suggested “‘let us also go, that we may die with Him.” 
In chapter xx:24 we read of him again; here it is his unbelief 
in the resurrection of the Lord. On account of his unbelief he 
has been called ‘‘the rationalist among the disciples,” but he 
possessed with his inclination to doubt a warm heart full 
of affection for the Lord. What he spoke in the passage 
before us was probably the uppermost thought in the heart 


270 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


of all the disciples. He was their spokesman. The Lord 
waited just for this question. It was the means of bringing 
forth one of the greatest utterances of our Lord. “Jesus 
saith unto him; I am the way, the truth and the life; no man 
cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” The words are so 
simple that a child can understand them. They have 
depths which no saint has ever fathomed. No such words 
were ever spoken by a human being before. No prophet 
ever spoke thus, and, if he had, he would have been a deceiver. 
The blasphemous comparison of our Lord with religious 
leaders of the past is often made by the rationalistic leaders 
in Christendom. ‘These critics place Him on the same level 
with Confucius, Zoroaster, Buddha, Socrates and others. 
But did any of these men with their religious philosophies, 
if they deserve to be called philosophies, ever say anything 
like this? Did any religious teacher of the past ever make 
such a claim? If Confucius, Zoroaster or Buddha had done 
so they would have branded themselves as miserable liars. 
Nowhere do we find even a suggestion that any of these 
men ever uttered a word approaching the declaration of 
our Lord. Only one who not only knows God, but who is 
wGod, can speak such words and make such claims. We 
shall find later a still greater word (verse 9). If our Lord 
were but a human being, towering, as it is claimed today, in’ 
religious sentiment, undertaking and character, above the 
rest of the race, these words would convict him of self-exalt- 
ation and deception. All who deny His Deity charge Him 
with being untrue, in the light of this claim. ‘The words 
* He spoke are unique and even this fact confirms His Deity. 

“T am the way. ‘This has been perverted as meaning 
“TIT am the way-shower”’; I show man how to live, how to 
practice the golden rule. Look at Me and see in Me an 
expression of real manhood! Iam your example, follow Me! 
This conception produced a number of years ago that puerile 
novel “What would Jesus do?” ‘This conception has its 
source in the denial of the lost condition of man. What 
man needs is not one, in the first instance, to show him how 
to live, but man needs a Saviour, because he is lost, dead 
in sins, without strength to do anything. When our Lord 
declares, “I am the way” He means by it that He is the 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 271 


One who has made the way for lost sinners to come back 
to God. As He said in the tenth chapter, “I am the door, 
by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved,” meaning 
by it that, in virtue of His sacrificial death, He is the door 
through whom all must enter, so here, He is the way, be- 
cause by His death on the cross, He has become the way 
for lost sinners, by which they can be saved and draw near 
to God. He is ‘fa new and living way, which He hath 
consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh” 
(Hebrews x:20). 

Thus He is the way to the Father and to the Father’s 
house with its many mansions. For those who believe on 
Him He is the way in which they walk. 

“IT am the truth.” This means more than being the true 
Messiah; it means more than revealing the truth, He is the 
Truth Himself. While the Word of God, the written revel- 
ation of God, is truth, He, the living Word, is the Truth. 
Whosoever knows Him knows the truth, for in Him are 
found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. To 
know the truth means to know Him, and the more we know 
Him, the more we know the truth and walk in the truth. 

“Tam the Life.’ He is the true God and the eternal life. 
He is the source and fountain of all life. This life, which 
He is, is imparted to the believer. The eternal life which 
He promises to give to those who believe on Him is He Him- 
self. The First Epistle of John develops this great truth. 
We share as believers the life which He is, and that life is to 
be manifested, as it was manifested in His life on earth. 

“No one cometh to the Father but by Me.” Because 
He is the way, the truth and the life, there is no other way 
to the Father. No one else, nor anything else, can bring the 
lost sinner to the Father. No one can know the Father 
and be a child of God apart from Him. ‘The soul which 
rejects Christ and does not believe in Him as the Son of 
God is therefore a lost soul. 

“We should mark carefully what an unanswerable argu- 
ment this one sentence supplies against the modern notion 
that it does not matter what a man believes, that all re- 
ligions will lead men to heaven if they are sincere; that 
creeds and doctrines are of no importance; that heaven is a 


272 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


place for all mankind, whether heathen, Mohammedan or 
Christian; and that the Fatherhood of God is enough to 
save all at last, of all sects, kinds and characters! Our 
Lord’s words should never be forgotten, “There is no way 
to the Father but by Me.’ God is a Father to none but 
those who believe on Christ. In short there are not different 
ways to heaven. ‘There is only one way.’’* 

“If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father 
also; and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.” 
To the unbelieving Jews our Lord had made previously a 
similar statement: ‘‘Ye neither know Me, nor My Father: 
if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father 
also” (Chapter vili:19). _ 

It has for a foundation the deep declaration of our Lord, 
also made in this Gospel, “I and the Father are one.”” Once 
more, as so often before in John’s Gospel, He witnesses to 
the perfect union which is between Him and the Father. 
To know Him is to know the Father and the more we know 
Christ, the more we learn to know the Father through Him. 
When our Lord said, “from henceforth, ye know Him, and 
have seen Him,” He had reference to the revelations which 
He was now making to them, especially in the words which 
follow: 

Verses 8-11. How little the disciples understood Him 
is seen from the question of Philip. It is the Philip who had 
found Nathanael, to whom he gave the message: “‘We have 
found Him of Whom Moses in the law, and the prophets 
did write * * * Come and see” (i:45-46). Though 
he knew that He is the promised Messiah, he had 
no understanding of the great fact, of which the Lord spoke 
so often, the fact of His oneness with the Father. He speaks 
as a Jew speaks, asking for a sign, for some visible evidence. 
He probably thought of the theophanies in the Old 
Testament, how prophets beheld the visible glory of the 
Lord, and he longs for such a visible manifestation. He 
thought if he only could get a glimpse of Him, whom their 
Lord called Father, it would be sufficient. 

The Lord rebuked him in a tender way. “Have I been 





*Ryle on John. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 273 


so much time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, 
Philip??? Philip was one of the earliest disciples. For 
almost three years he had been in constant companionship 
with Him. They had journeyed together, lived together, 
and were intimate. All had seen His mighty works; they 
were the witnesses of the miracles He performed; they had 
seen the miraculous feeding of the multitudes, the cleansing 
of the lepers, the opening of the eyes of the blind, the raising 
of the dead. They had seen the works which only omnipo- 
tence could perform. They had listened to His words. 
They knew that He was the Lord. Yet Philip asked, 
“Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us.” He had not 
understood what the Lord had said, “if ye had known Me, 
ye should have known My Father also.” He did not realize 
that He and the Father are one. We do not know if the 
other disciples had any deeper knowledge than Philip. 
But all was changed after the Holy Spirit came to take of 
the things of Christ to reveal them to their hearts. Then 
John wrote this blessed Gospel with the full revelation of 
the Lord and His glory. In both the Gospel and the First 
Epistle, he voiced the faith of his brethren: “That which 
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which 
we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, 
and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; for the life 
was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and 
shew unto you that eternal life; that which we have seen and 
heard, declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship 
with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and 
with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John i:1-3). 

Then He spoke the great word concerning Himself. 
*“He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how 
sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not 
that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words 
that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father 
that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” 

In the Old Testament the prophets beheld the visible 
glory of the Lord. He dwelt in the midst of His people, both 
in the tabernacle and in the Solomonic temple. Many 
times His glory was seen. Isaiah beheld Him in the temple 
vision; Ezekiel saw the glory and in the midst of the glorious 


274 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


cloud one like unto a son of man; Daniel beheld Him in 
His visions and saw Him face to face on the river banks of 
Hiddekel. They did not know that He who appeared in 
visible glory—whom Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and 
other holy men of God saw—was none other but He in whose 
companionship they had walked, who was speaking to them 
now. Through Him, God the Son, God the Father had 
revealed Himself in olden times. But now the Son, who is 
one with the Father, was incarnate. He had come to reveal 
the Father in His own person. Of God it is written, ““Whom 
no man hath seen, nor can see” (1 Timothy vi:16); ““No man 
hath seen at any time: the only begotten Son, who is in the 
bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1:18); 
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and 
we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of 
the Father) full of grace and truth.”’ And the day is coming 
again when His visible glory will be seen, when it will be 
no longer a spiritual but a physical vision. That will 
be in the day of His return when every eye shall see Him. 
The transfiguration was a foregleam of this coming glorious 
event. | 

What majestic words these are, “he that hath seen Me 
hath seen the Father”! To deny in the face of them His abso- 
lute Deity shows the awful darkness of the natural mind. 
How could He who was perfect in His blessed life on earth 
have spoken such marvelous words, and made such a claim, 
if it were not true that He and the Father are one! We 
let another speak, who alas, made such a shipwreck years 
after he had penned the words which we quote: 

“The language of Christ here, and indeed throughout 
this whole discourse is utterly inconsistent with the con- 
ception of Him as a mere human or superhuman ambassador 
of God. He represents not merely the divine government, 
but the divine Being. The Father is in Him so that who- 
ever looks within the tabernacle beholds the glory of the 
only begotten of the Father. He is the manifestation in 
the flesh, not of the divine government, but of God (1 
Timothy ii1:16). It is impossible to refer this answer to the 
mere union in sympathy and purpose of Jesus with God. No 
Christian, even if perfected, could say—He that hath seen 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN tah 


me hath seen Christ. How much less then, could a Jew, 
though perfect, have said, He that hath seen me hath seen 
the Father.’’* 

His words and His works are the evidences that He is in 
the Father and that the Father is in Him. It is the same 
self-witness which we have had before in this Gospel 
(Chapter v). ‘‘Believe Me that I am in the Father, and 
the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the very works’ 
sake.”” Have faith in Me that I am in the Father and the 
Father in Me, is what the Lord tells Philip and the rest of 
the disciples. And in His graciousness, without any severe 
word of rebuke, He condescends to the weakness of His frail 
followers, ‘‘or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.” 
They were His credentials; by these signs He manifested 
Himself as one with the Father, for the works which the 
Father does, He did also. 

Verses 12-14. The words which follow the answers which 
our Lord gave to the questions asked by Thomas and by 
Philip must be linked with the comforting assurance He gave 
to His disciples in the beginning of this chapter, ““Let not your 
heart be troubled.” We may look upon verses 5-11 as an 
interruption in the address of our Lord to His own. The 
“Verily, verily’’ of verse 12 should be connected with verse 4. 
He was returning to the Father and in verse 12 He speaks 
of the result of His going to be with the Father. 

It is a great statement He gave to them: “Verily, verily, 
I say unto to you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I 
do shall he also do; and greater works than these shall he 
do, because I gounto my Father.” Itis one of the significant 
passages in the Gospel introduced by a double ‘“‘verily” 
and which, we paraphrase by ‘“‘be assured it is so beyond a 
doubt.” It is just as sure and certain as the other statements 
in this Gospel which begin with the same words. 

But what does our Lord mean? ‘This verse wrongly inter- 
preted has been the fruitful soil upon which all kinds of 
delusive and fanatical movements have flourished. It 
is so still, especially in connection with the men and women 
who go about teaching and preaching a restoration of apos- 


*Quoted from a Commentary on John, by Lyman Abbott, D. D. 


276 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


tolic gifts, such as the gifts of speaking in tongues and of 
healing the sick. 

The question is what did our Lord mean when He spoke 
of greater works that those He did on earth, which those who 
believe on Him should do after His departure? Did our 
Lord mean miracles of healing, such as He performed on 
earth as the evidences of His Deity and the credentials of 
His Messiahship? The greatest miracles our Lord did 
were the miracles of the resurrection of the dead. He raised 
the daughter of Jairus; He gave back to the widow of Nain 
her only son and He brought back to life the brother .of 
Mary and Martha. The raising of Lazarus after he had 
been dead for four days, so that decomposition had started 
in, is the greatest of all His miracles. Could there be a greater 
miracle than that? Any sane person sees at once that our 
Lord could not have meant by the ‘“‘greater works” the 
works of healing and the raising of the dead. 

It is then clear that the greater works cannot mean His 
works of physical miracles. But it is equally clear that when 
our Lord said in the first part of this verse ‘‘the works that 
I do shall he do also” that He meant his miraculous works. 
He indicated thereby that when He had left his disciples, 
when they were to be His witnesses, testifying to Him as 
the Messiah, they should not be troubled about a continua- 
tion during their ministry of the same works of power and 
mercy, which He had shown and by which He had been 
attested as the Messiah-King. The same assurance He gave 
to His eleven disciples at the close of the Gospel of Mark. 
(See Mark xvi:17-20). 

And these promises have been fulfilled during the life- 
time of the Apostles. The “Verily” of our Lord of the 
verse before us is seen accomplished in the beginning of the 
history of the Church in the book of Acts. The sick were 
healed, demons were driven out and even the dead were 
raised. 

Let us remember when our Lord sent forth His disciples 
with the message that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, a 
message which was only for the kingdom people, that is, 
Israel, He conferred upon the messengers His own miracu- 
lous power to heal the sick, to cleanse the lepers and to raise 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 277 


the dead. The message of the kingdom requires outward 
evidences. The Jew asks for a sign and has a perfect right 
to do so, for signs and wonders are promised with the estab- 
lishment of the kingdom as predicted by the Prophets. 

Every believer who has learned to divide the Word of 
Truth rightly also knows that the beginning of the book of 
Acts starts with a message to Jerusalem, and once more the 
fact is presented that He who had lived amongst them, whom 
they crucified and whom God had raised from the dead, is 
the promised Messiah, Israel’s King. Hence we find not 
yet in the beginning of Acts the full message of the Gospel of 
Grace and the revelation concerning the Church, but Peter’s 
testimony is at first exclusively addressed to Israel. ‘The 
call is once more “‘to the Jew first to repent, and the promise 
is a Kingdom promise, the times of refreshing and the restor- 
ation of all things by the return of Him whom the heavens 
received. It was a repeated offer of the kingdom to the 
nation, so beautifully indicated in the parable of the marriage 
of the King’s Son in Matthew xxii:1-10. And during this 
period, especially, we find the word of our Lord fulfilled. 
They did the works which He did. Many miracles took 
place in Jerusalem, in Judea and in Samaria as the outward 
evidences that the message not alone was true, but that He 
who had done the miracles on earth is living, risen from the 
dead, and that His power is undiminished. These outward 
evidences of the truth of Christianity continued as long as 
the full revelation of God had not yet been put into the hands 
of man. We find miracles in the life and ministry of the 
Apostle Paul and his associates. But as he received from 
the Lord the great revelations, and wrote them under the 
guiding pen of the Holy Spirit, these outward signs became 
less. Finally, when Paul wrote these marvelous documents, 
which complete the Word of God (in the sense of giving the 
highest revelation) we see him a prisoner in Rome. In the 
beginning of Acts the Lord did miracles in sending angels 
to deliver the Apostles, and later Peter, from prison. 
But there was no miraculous deliverance from prison in the 
case of the Apostle Paul. 

There is no evidence anywhere in Scripture that miracles 
such as our Lord did in physical things, such as the healing 


278 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


of diseases, the cleansing of lepers, or the miraculous feed- 
ing, and the raising of the dead are to continue throughout 
the history of the Church. As long as the Apostles lived, to 
whom the promise was given, these signs were present. As 
long as the full truth of Christianity had not been revealed 
outward evidences were needed. After the Word of God 
had been completed by the Spirit of God in the epistolar 
testimony, the character of the age, as an age of faith and 
not of sight, was fully established, and miracles in the sense 
as our Lord did miracles ceased, and then begin “‘the greater 
works.”? Before we explain what these greater works are 
we wish to say that in the post-apostolic times miracle- 
workers arose who claimed-to have power to heal and to 
perform all kinds of miracles. Church history reports many 
incidents, and the lives of the saints are filled with miracu- 
lous happenings, healing of divers diseases, manifestations 
of angels, and other supernatural manifestations. Period- 
ically, movements started which claimed tobe a revival of 
apostolic times and a restoration of miracles. All these 
claims were proven counterfeits and not a few of these 
movements became the hotbed of false doctrines and even 
immoralities. ‘The present day Pentecostal movement, with 
its so-called miracle women and miracle men, with its false 
teachings, with its claims and subtle deceptions, belongs 
to this class. In some of these Pentecostal sects the most 
abominable things of the flesh under the garb of great 
spiritual attainments have been practiced. 

But what are “the greater works” of which our Lord 
speaks? Our Lord did not only work physical miracles, 
but there were other miracles, the conversion of sinners. 
The conversion of a sinner is a spiritual miracle. We know 
from Scripture that not many more than five hundred had 
been gathered by His earthly ministry, who believed on Him 
as the Son of God and were born again. When the Holy Spirit 
had come on the day of Pentecost and Peter preached, three 
thousand miracles of grace took place. This was a greater 
work spiritually than He had done. And so throughout 
this present age over and over again through His chosen 
instruments, which are His gifts to His body, these greater 
works have been done. And these greater works are the 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 279 


results of His return to the Father and the subsequent com- 
ing of the Holy Spirit. 

To this promise is linked the promise of prayer. ‘And 
whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that 
the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any- 
thing in My name, I will do it.” This is another comfort 
with which He comforted His soon to be orphaned disciples. 
He heard their requests while He was with them; He knew 
their thoughts and their desires and graciously dealt with 
them. He was about to go to the Father’s house to pre- 
pare the place for them, and now He gives them the promise 
that they can pray to the Father in His name and whatso- 
ever they ask in His name that He will do. He had given 
them before the form of prayer, which is commonly called 
“The Lord’s prayer,” that is the “Our Father.” His name 
was not mentioned in that prayer. But now in anticipa- 
tion of His sacrificial work, His resurrection, His ascension 
and His presence at the right hand of God, He institutes 
prayer in His name. ‘This fact is emphasized by Him when 
He said to them later in His discourse, ‘‘Hitherto have ye 
asked nothing in My name; ask and ye shall receive, that 
your joy may be full” (xvi:24). But what does it mean, 
“Ask in My name’’? It means more than using His blessed 
name in a form of prayer. In order to pray in His name 
it is necessary that the person is in Him and identified with 
Him. The phrase “in the name” as used in the New Tes- 
tament generally signifies the representation of the person 
whose name is used, standing in his stead, fulfilling his pur- 
poses, manifesting his will and showing forth his life and 
glory. To pray, therefore, effectually in His name means to 
realize our standing in Christ, our union with Him, and 
seeking His glory. The mere use of the name of our Lord 
in prayer without the spiritual reality of our oneness with 
Him and deep desire to glorify Him by having His will 
done in our lives is unavailing. But knowing Him and 
bent on doing His will we can pray in His name. Whatso- 
ever we ask must be qualified by whatsoever we ask accord- 
ing to His will, that which is in harmony with His will; true 
prayer in His name will be like His own prayer, “Not my 
will but thine be done.” 


280 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


' Ever since this comforting promise was given the Lord’s 
people have cast themselves upon it, and, pleading in simple 
faith, with hearts devoted to Him as their Saviour and 
Lord. They asked of Him and received His gracious answer. 
It is still the comfort of all trusting hearts, and as long as 
His people journey through the wilderness towards the 
homeland, they can test and make use of the promise. 
It is most blessed to come to the Father with our wants 
and remind Him of the words His Son spoke on earth, the 
encouragement He has left His people, to ask in His name 
and expect in faith the answer. 

And in answered prayer the Father will be glorified in 
the Son. It means by the use of His name, by sinners re- 
deemed by Himself, as their needs are supplied and be- 
lieving prayer answered, God the Father will get glory on 
account of it. Then He restates the same promise: “If ye 
shall ask anything in My name I will do it.” It is most 
emphatic, as if He would want to remove even the slightest 
doubt. Just ask anything in my name and see how I will 
do it. In both instances He says “I will do it,” while in 
chapter xvi:23 we read, ‘“‘Whatsoever ye shall ask the 
Father in My name He will do it.” Prayer is to be addressed 
to God. When our Lord speaks that He will do it He gives 
another evidence to the many of this Gospel that He is 
God. Well said Bengel, ‘“This ‘I’ indicates the glory, the 
glory of Him who is One with the Father.” 

Verses 15-20. In these words our Lord told His disciples 
of the gracious provision He was making for them after His 
departure. They loved Him. But He loved them in a 
measure which they could not understand. Their love was 
expressed by sorrow when He told them that they were now 
soon to be orphaned. This must be a reason why He said to 
them “If ye love Me keep My commandments.” The test of 
love for Him is obedience, that is doing His will. Then fol- 
lows a new revelation and promise. He had spoken to them 
about praying in His Name, but now He tells them, what He 
had not said before, that He would pray the Father in their 
behalf. The Greek word used here and translated “pray” 
is of interesting significance. Three Greek words of different 
meaning are translated in our English Bibles by the word 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 281 


pray. One means “to ask”; another “‘to request’’; and the 
third “to entreat.” ‘The word used here is the word ‘‘to 
request.” In chapters xvi:26; xvii:9, 15 and 20 the word 
“‘ask” is used. Not once does the Holy Spirit employ in 
connection with our Lord’s praying the word ‘‘to entreat.” 
His is not the entreating petition of a creature, but the request 
of the Son from the Father. 

His request for His own concerns the gift from the Father 
of “another Comforter.” This word is also inadequately 
rendered. The Greek is a compound, Paracletos. It means 
to call to one’s side (Para kaleo). It is the same word trans- 
lated ‘“‘Advocate” in 1 John ii:2.. There it is the Lord Jesus 
Christ who is the Paraclete, the Advocate with the Father. 
And here He promises the third person of the Trinity to take 
His place in the believer as the Advocate. The statement 
“another” shows that the Holy Spirit is to do the same work 
in the believer as the glorified Christ does in heaven for the 
believer. 

Before we take up the promise of the Paraclete and His 
work we call attention to the three persons of the Trinity 
as revealed in verse 15. The Son of God is requesting of 
the Father, the Father is giving as the result of the request 
of the Son, and the Holy Spirit comes to abide. There are 
some queer Bible students, as they call themselves, who 
refuse to believe in the Trinity, because the word does not 
appear in the Bible. They do not belong to Unitarians or 
the vicious “Latter Day Saints,” known as Mormons, both 
of whom deny the Trinity, but they claim orthodoxy. This 
verse alone should deliver them from their foolish imagin- 
ation, for here are three persons and the three are one. 

‘Twice before our Lord had spoken about the future gift 
of the Spirit, to the woman of Samaria at the well and in the 
seventh chapter (verse 35). In the latter passage we read 
that the gift of the Spirit was dependent on His death, 
resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God. Of this 
condition He spoke again in chapter xvi:7, “Nevertheless I 
tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; 
for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; 
but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” Here in chapter 
xiv:16 He announces for the first time definitely the gift of 


282 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Him, who would take His place in and with His own during 
this present age. As already stated He is to be an Advocate, 
one who stands alongside of those who belong to Christ, as 
the glorified Christ is the Advocate with the Father. The 
Lord Jesus Christ exercises His office as Advocate in behalf 
of His people when they sin. He then intercedes in their 
behalf. Such is also the ministry of the other Advocate, the 
Holy Spirit, for it is written “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth 
our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as 
we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with 
groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans viii:26). 
Whatever help the believer needs in prayer, worship, witness- 
bearing, service, in trial, sorrow and all other circumstances, 
the Holy Spirit as Advocate is in the believer to cheer, com- 
fort, lead, teach, and to give strength. 

And the Lord promises Him as a permanent gift, “that He 
may abide with you for ever.” He was present during Old 
Testament times. Even in the age before the deluge He 
manifested His power (Genesis vi:3). But never before was 
He present on earth as the Spirit indwelling believers and 
abiding for ever, without leaving them. David prayed: 
“Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm li:11). He had 
seen the tragedy of Saul, the mad king, as the Spirit had left 
him and an evil spirit had taken His place. The New 
Testament Saint is assured that the Holy Spirit, given to 
him through grace in believing on Christ will abide with 
him. We are sealed by Him unto the day of redemption 
(Ephesians iv:30). 

Our Lord describes Him as the Spirit of Truth. God the 
Father is Truth, the Son of God is the Truth and so is the 
Holy Spirit Truth, another evidence that the three persons 
in the Godhead are one. In his first epistle John writes, “It 
is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth” 
(1 John v:6). He dispels the darkness and reveals the Truth 
concerning Him who said “I am the Truth.” He teaches 
the Truth and guides into all the Truth, which He makes 
known in the written Word, of which He is the commun- 
icator. The world cannot receive this Spirit of Truth for the 
simple reason that the world has rejected Christ, nor can 
anyone receive this gift of God’s Grace unless by the hearing 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 283 


of faith (Gal. iii:2), that is by believing on Jesus Christ as 
the Son of God and Saviour, who died for our sins, was buried 
and arose on the third day. The natural man does not know 
Him, cannot see Him nor receive Him. ‘“The natural man 
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are 
foolishness to him, neither can he know them”? (1 Cor. ii:14). 

It is otherwise with those who own Christ as their Saviour 
and Lord. “But ye know Him, for He abideth with you and 
shall be in you.”” It must be noted that the Lord spoke of 
the fact that the Holy Spirit was with them, but He an- 
nounced His indwelling as taking place at some future 
time, for He said “He shall be in you.” As they had be- 
lieved on Christ as the Son of God, followed Him, they were 
born again and the Holy Spirit was with them. His personal 
indwelling had not yet come; that was consummated on the 
day of Pentecost, when the promise was fulfilled and the third 
person of the Trinity came to earth to dwell in the hearts of 
believers. And this is the blessed truth of Christianity, that 
all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are washed in His 
blood, saved by His Grace, born again, and have received 
the Holy Spirit. He dwells, not an influence, but a person, in 
every believing heart, putting His seal there of ownership. 
The bodies of believers are the temples of the Holy Spirit. 
This is not the question of seeking a personal experience of 
receiving the Holy Spirit, but it is the question of believing 
that the Word of God assures us that this is the case. ‘‘What, 
know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit 
which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your 
own?” (1 Cor. vi:19). Thousands of Christians today 
believe the false doctrine that a saved Christian must have 
a personal experience of a personal Pentecost, evidenced by 
the gift of an unknown tongue. Where does our Lord 
speak of this in these final words in John’s Gospel? Nowhere! 

Following wrong teachings concerning the Spirit of God, 
seeking certain influences, powers and gifts, supposing that 
they come from the Spirit of God, is a dangerous path to 
follow. It is on this territory that the enemy manifests his 
most awful power and garbs himself as an angel of light. 
The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. He is here 
and no other Pentecost is needed. Every individual believer 


284 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


shares in the baptism which took place, just once, on that 
day and becomes through grace the temple of the Holy 
Spirit. It is unbelief in what God has said, if a believer seeks 
a special experience of receiving the Holy Spirit. The other 
truth connected with the gift of the Paraclete, the formation 
of the Church on earth, uniting believers with Christ in glory, 
thus constituting the body of Christ, is not taught in the 
Gospel of John. 

And all this must be realized in faith and then expressed 
in a life of devotion and obedience to our Lord. Those who 
profess that they are in Christ, indwelled by His Spirit, 
His temples, and do not walk in separation, serving two 
masters, dishonor, grieve and quench Him, and show that 
their hearts know but little of true love for Christ. 

“Tf the Spirit be come to dwell in us, the first requisite is 
readiness of obedience. Wondrous are the possibilities held 
out to us in this marvelous gift; but marvelous also is the 
possibility we have of belittling even a gift like this. The 
Galatians had it, who were giving up the Gospel for the Law. 
The Corinthians had it, who were carnal, and walked as men. 
It belongs to the mystery of our nature that we may have as 
though we had not. It belongs to the royalty of it that we 
may debase ourselves. Stranger still is it that the children 
of this world may be wiser in their generation than the 
children of light, and that the Lord should even have to 
put this as if a characteristic thing. Were we not unfaithful 
to ourselves and to God, how would the world be lighted up 
with the reflection of the glory that is in the unveiled face 
of Jesus! how we should go through the world as visitants 
from another sphere! Thus we need not wonder that the 
Lord should almost seem to put it as if the gift of the Spirit 
were dependent upon the reality of one’s obedience. What! 
can we have God in us, and entertain Him so poorly? Noth- 
ing could make such a thing credible but the sad experience 
of so lamentable a fact! Yes, men who know that Christ has 
died for them—who know that the Spirit of God dwells in 
them—who know that God’s way is the only way of peace and 
joy and power—can yet live and act as if nothing of all this 
were true. Wecan give up certainties of blessing for certain- 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 285 


ties of spiritual loss! Who can enough bewail the misery 
of such unaccountable folly ?’’* 

Then follows the precious assurance, “I will not leave you 
comfortless; I will come to you.” ‘Though this sentence is 
beloved by many saints it is far from expressing the original. 
The correct rendering is, “I will not leave you orphans.” An 
orphan is not without parents. Death came and deprived 
the child of father and mother. Then memory looks back 
to them and hope looks forward also to meeting them again, 
but the parents are not present. Such an orphaned state 
was before the disciples; they were soon to be solitary and 
friendless. He therefore assured them, “I will not leave you 
orphans.” 

But what does it mean when He assures them “I will come 
to you”? It has been explained as meaning His manifesta- 
tion after His resurrection. But this cannot be the meaning, 
for their state as orphans began after His ascension. 
Augustine, Bede, Ryle and others apply it as meaning 
His second visible coming. But it cannot mean this for it 
was spoken to the eleven disciples as a comforting assurance 
during their lifetime. It seems the context gives the correct 
interpretation. It means the promise of verse 23, that He 
and the Father will come to the believer’s heart to make their 
abode with him. It must not be detached from the promise 
of the indwelling Spirit; thus Christ dwells in our hearts by 
faith (Eph. iii:17). 

“Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but 
ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also.” A short time 
only, and as far as the unbelieving world is concerned, they 
would no longer see Him. The last the world saw of Him 
was when they looked upon Him hanging on the cross be- 
tween two thieves. None of the world beheld Him risen from 
the dead. The world will see Him some day when He comes as 
a thief in the night. He assured His disciples that while the 
world would not see Him any longer that they would see 
Him. To apply this to His second coming is incorrect, 
for it is the present tense, “ye see Me.” It means the 
spiritual vision of Himself which the true believer has in 


*F, W. Grant. 


286 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


virtue of the indwelling Spirit. It is what Paul writes in the 
Epistle to the Hebrews: “‘But we see Jesus, who was made a 
little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned 
with glory and honor’ (Hebrews 11:9). Then comes the 
assurance of life. ‘‘Because I live ye shall live also.” Into 
what a depth we look through this one sentence of our blessed 
Lord! The life which He has we have; the life of the head 
in glory is the life which is in every one of His members on 
earth, and we are the members of His body, His flesh and 
His bones. His life can never die, never be affected or 
destroyed by enemies, and such is our life. It is hid with 
Christ in God. , 

“On that day shall ye know that I am in My Father, and 
ye in Me, and I in you.” ‘This day has also been explained 
as the day of His appearing. It is, of course, very true that 
in His day, when we shall be with Him, we shall know as 
we are known. But it is a strained view to make this 
verse the future day of our Lord’s return. Itis the day when 
the Holy Spirit came to make known the things which our 
Lord had indicated to them. He did not tell His disciples 
that they were going to knowwhen the Holy Spirit comes, how 
He is in the Father, how they are in Him and He in them, but 
the fact that such is the case is to be made known to them. 
This is distinctly the work of the Spirit. The great Pauline 
Epistles reveal this blessed fact of the union of the believer 
with Christ. 

Verses 21-26. The twenty-first verse evidently connects 
with verse 15, and the statement there is now fully unfolded 
and emphasized. It also must be linked with the preceding 
promise of the indwelling Spirit. The Spirit of God produces 
in the believer His fruits, which are the results of practical 
obedience. Love for Christ can only be manifested by 
obedience to His words; obedience therefore is the true test of 
love. In the First Epistle of John this test is made likewise, 
and John brands there those who profess to know Him, and 
do not keep His commandments, as liars. ‘He that saith I 
know Him and keepeth not His commandments is a liar and 
the truth is not in him” (1 John ii:4). Many have the com- 
mandments of Christ, yet they do not keep them. Such do 
not give an outward evidence of real love for Him. But 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 287 


what are His commandments? They are all summed up in 
two words, “Follow me.” He has left us an example that 
we should follow His steps. “He that saith he abideth in 
Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” 
(1 John ii:6). ‘‘Let this mind be in you which was also in 
Christ Jesus” (Phil. 11:5). One who walks in union with 
Christ, follows Him, will keep all His sayings, and the in- 
dwelling Spirit supplies the power to walk in the Spirit. 
A blessed promise is attached to this demand. “He that 
loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, 
and will manifest myself to him.” What a marvelous 
promise and what an incentive to obedience! ‘This is the 
way that every believer may become a “beloved disciple.” 
Here is a special love of the Father for those who express 
their love for His Son in practical obedience. How deep 
we may drink at this well oflove! What gracious possibilities 
are here! Then He Himself assures us that He will love such 
a one and manifest Himself to him. The manifestation is, 
of course, a spiritual manifestation. In our days certain 
deluded people, given to an emotional fanaticism, claim that 
they have deeper experiences, that these experiences include 
visions and dreams, besides other supernatural manifesta- 
tions. Our Lord never promised such things. That these 
people are not sound is shown by their unscriptural teachings, 
by their spiritual pride and often by worse things. The 
manifestation of which our Lord speaks is the consciousness of 
His presence with us, the satisfying knowledge that we please 
Him, and the precious comfort of intimate fellowship with 
Him. Only to those who are obedient to Him can He reveal 
Himself thus. 

Judas’s voice breaks in. Judas Iscariot was no longer 
present. He had gone out into that awful night to betray 
Him. It is the other Judas, called in Matthew’s Gospel 
Lebbaeus, and in Mark, Thaddaeus. The Spirit of God calls 
attention to the identity of Judas, that he was not Iscariot, 
the betrayer, who said, “Lord.” Judas Iscariot never ad- 
dresses Jesus as Lord, because he did not believe on Him as 
the Son of God. His question literally translated is ‘Lord, 
and what has happened that Thou wilt manifest Thyself to 
us, but not at all to the world?’ One can easily read in this 


288 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


question the disappotnted Jewish Hope. Had they not 
followed Him as the Messiah, the King of Israel? Had they 
not announced that the long-promised kingdom is at hand? 
He and the other disciples expected that He would manifest 
Himself as King with power and glory before all Israel and 
the nations of the world. And now He had announced that 
He would manifest Himself only to the disciples. What had 
happened? He was greatly perplexed, not understanding 
the deep spiritual meaning of the words of the Lord. 

Our Lord, therefore, speaks words similar to those recorded 
in verse 21: “If a man love me he will keep my word, and 
my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and 
make our abode with him.” ‘The spirit of obedience is 
again made prominent and here it is not keeping His com- 
mandments, but keeping His Word (not words). Keeping 
the Word, being obedient to it, has attached to it one of the 
greatest promises. The Father and the Son promise, 
“We will come and make our abode with him.” This is, 
of course, a spiritual coming and abiding in the heart of the 
obedient believer. It is the highest and the best manifesta- 
tion promised to the child of God, to become the dwelling 
place of the Father and the Son. The realization of this 
promise is conditioned on obedience to His Word. Well 
has another said, “In God’s ordered path alone can we find 
God. In His marked out way it would be impossible not 
to find Him.” And when our Lord said, “We will come,” 
He testifies again to His unity with the Father. 

Then follows the same truth presented negatively: “He 
that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings.” But there is 
more than that involved. One who does not love Him and 
shows his character by not keeping His sayings does more 
than reject His words, he rejects the Father whose words 
the Son declared. ‘‘Where there is no obedience to Christ, 
there is no love. Nothing can be more plain than our Lord’s 
repeated warnings that practical obedience, keeping His 
commandments and sayings, doing His will, is the only sure 
test of love to Him. Without this obedience, profession, 
talk, knowledge, church-membership, yea, even feeling, 
conviction, weeping and crying, are all worthless things.” 

And as they listened with their ears to all these words of 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 289 


comfort and instruction, their hearts did not grasp the mean- 
ing of what He was saying to them. He told them that the 
time would come when they would know and understand. 
“But the Comforter (Paraclete) which is the Holy Spirit, 
whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you 
all things, and bring all things to your remembrance what- 
soever I have said unto you.” The person of the Holy 
Spirit, the other Advocate in their behalf, would supply 
their lack of understanding. Through this coming One 
they would remember all these things; He would teach them 
and lead them into the things of Christ, even as He has done 
and still does through the blessed redemption truths, 
as taught by Him in the Epistles. The promise that the 
Spirit would bring all things to their remembrance vouches 
for the perfect accuracy of the four Gospels. ‘‘It is in the 
fulfillment of this promise to the Apostles that their suffi- 
ciency as witnesses of all that the Lord did and taught, 
and consequently the authenticity of the Gospel narrative is 
grounded.” 

Verses 27-31. He gives them a legacy: ‘“‘Peace I leave 
with you, my peace IJ give unto you.” About to leave the 
world and go back to the Father, He made His will and be- 
queathed to His own the priceless treasure of peace. But 
we must notice the difference between the peace He left and 
the peace He gives; the latter He calls ““My peace.” He 
made peace in the blood of the cross. ‘Therefore being 
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our 
Lord Jesus Christ”? (Rom. v:1).\Peace’ with God 1s the 
legacy of His death for all who trust in Him. It is the peace 
He made and which we cannot make nor maintain. It is 
ours as the gift of grace, a peace which can never be undone. 
But there is also “the peace of God” of which we read in 
Phil. iv:7.. This peace of God is the same as the peace He 
promises to give and which is His own peace. While the 
peace with God is the result of having accepted Christ as 
Saviour, His peace is dependent on obedience to Him and 
communion with Him. The Holy Spirit is given to dwell 
in the believer so that the believer may know and enjoy 
His own peace. The peace of God is that peace which God 
possesses in the serenity of His being, and, because Christ 


290 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


is God, He had this marvelous peace which nothing could 
disturb. He stood unmoved and unperturbed in the courts 
of Caiaphas and in the judgment hall of the Roman Pilate. 
We behold nothing but calmness in His blessed life. When 
the waves began to fill the little ship and the disciples cried 
out for fear, He knew no fear, but rested in perfect peace on 
His pillow. When they wanted to cast Him down some 
mountain side, or picked up stones to stone Him, He re- 
mained undisturbed. He trusted God and knew the issues 
of all. Hence this majestic peace. 

We see the promise realized in the beginning of the history 
of the Church on earth. It enabled the Apostles to stand 
fearless and unmoved before the threatening Jewish author- 
ities. It gave to Stephen a heavenly calmness in the midst 
of the shower of stones. Peter, having “His peace,” slept 
peacefully in chains. Paul and Silas, in possession of the 
peace of God, sang praises at midnight, and Paul remained 
undisturbed, surrounded by the Jerusalem mob, as he was 
unmoved when the shipwreck was about to take place. It 
was His peace, which kept the millions of martyrs, and 
enabled them to meet the lions and the tigers with a song of 
praise. Such is His blessed legacy. We also may enjoy 
it all as we do His will and rest in Him. The formula for 
it is simple. “Be anxious for nothing; but in everything by 
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests 
be made known to God. And the peace of God, which 
passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds 
through Christ Jesus’ (Phil. iv:6-7). 

Then there is the second, “‘Let not your heart be troubled, 
neither let it be afraid.”’ Here is the true remedy for fear. 
It is His peace in a life of trust and obedience. 

In verse 28 He refers to His words in chapter xiii:33-36 and 
xiv:2,3,12. In view of His going away and the promise of 
His return, instead of being grieved, they should rejoice, for 
He went back to the Father to represent them in His presence, 
and finally He would return and take them to the Father’s 
house with its many mansions. What did our Lord mean 
when He said “for My Father is greater than I’’? Unitarians 
and other anti-trinitarians use it as one of their star texts to 
uphold their unscriptural theories. Is this statement not 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 291 


inconsistent with the many declarations in this Gospel as 
to His perfect unity with the Father? He who is one with 
the Father had taken the place of a servant; He became man. 
As such He was sent forth by the Father, derived His au- 
thority from the Father, obeyed the Father, did the 
Father’s will. The Lord Jesus Christ while very God, is 
God manifested in the flesh, and God in His absolute Being 
is greater than any manifestation of Him. God absolute 
is more than God revealed. An ancient creed states, 
“Christ is equal to the Father as touching His Godhead and 
inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.” 

He had told them before what would take place. After- 
ward they would remember it all, as they did when they 
believed. His words would be few for the time of His 
passion was almost at hand. 

Significant is the statement, ‘“I'he prince of this world 
cometh and has nothing in Me.” He does not say that His 
enemies are coming, but He mentions but one person, Satan, 
the Devil. And he is ‘‘the prince of this world.” hat an 
important statement from the lips of the Son of God! In 
his first epistle John tells us that the whole world lieth in the 
wicked one. Sin has made Satan the ruler over fallen man, 
and the system which man builds up is alienated from God. 
And when the world rejected Christ this sinister being 
became “the god of this world,” or age (2 Cor. iv:4). He 
came before to the Son of God with his tests, but found 
nothing in Him. All he tried to do to keep Him back from 
doing the will of God in redemption resulted in defeat. There 
was nothing in our Lord which in any way could respond to 
the Devil’s suggestion, for our Lord was absolutely sinless in 
His human nature. And now Satan came for the final assault 
and found only another defeat. 

“But that the world may know that I love the Father, and 
as the Father gave Me commandment even so I do. Arise, 
let u's go hence.”” He was ready to go to the cross and thereby 
show His love for the Father, by being obedient unto death, 
yea, the death of the cross. 


292 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


CHAPTER XV 


The last sentence of the previous chapter is, ‘‘Arise, let us go 
hence!”” A number of expositors think that our Lord arose 
from the place where He had washed the disciples’ feet and 
where He had spoken all these precious words, and that He 
moved onward towards Gethsemane. On the way there He 
continued to talk to the disciples till at some convenient place 
He offered His great prayer in their presence, after which 
Judas, with the band of men and officers, appeared to arrest 
Him. We do not share this opinion. It is almost incon- 
ceivable that our Lord shquld have spoken the great words 
contained in chapters xv and xvi in the act of walking in 
the night. It would also have been quite impossible for all 
the eleven disciples to have heard Him if He walked ahead 
of them. But the first verse of chapter xviii contradicts 
the view that He left the room and walked across Kedron to 
Gethsemane. ‘“‘When Jesus had spoken these words, He 
went forth with His disciples over the brook Kedron, where 
was a garden into which He entered, and His disciples.” 

But if He did not leave the place, what did He mean when 
He said, “‘Arise, let us go hence”? It must have a sym- 
bolical meaning. He was about to leave the world, for Him, 
though He is the creator of all, a strange place. Repeatedly 
in His discourse and also in His prayer He mentions the 
world. ‘The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit (xiv:17). 
Only to His own and not to the world is He manifesting 
Himself (xiv:21,22). He giveth, not as the world gives 
(xiv:27).. The world hates Him and those who belong to 
Him (xvi:18). They are the chosen ones out of the world, 
and therefore separated ones (xvi:19). They are not of the 
world even as He is not of the world (xvii:16). He was 
leaving the world to go back to the Father, and for His own 
it becomes also the strange place, no longer their home. 
While they are in the world they are not of it and must be 
separated from it. They must take their places with Him. 
This is the spiritual meaning of the words He spoke and 
what follows in His teaching confirms this. 

Verses 1-8. Hespeaks to them ina parable. Those who 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 293 


teach that He left the chamber where He had taught, say that 
the parable was suggested by the vineyards on the way to 
Gethsemane; others say that over the great doors of the 
temple there was an immense vine carved, and that this vine 
was in the mind of the Lord when He uttered these words. 
We must look for a deeper reason. Every student of the 
Word of God knows that Israel is symbolized by the three 
trees, the Olive, the Fig-tree, and the Vine. These three 
trees are mentioned together for the first time in Jotham’s 
parable, in which they typify Israel; and the bramble, the 
Gentiles (Judges ix:7-15). Asaph speaks of Israel thus: 
‘Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt, Thou hast cast out 
the heathen and planted it” (Psalm Ixxx:8). Through 
Jeremiah the Lord declared ‘Yet I had planted thee a noble 
vine, wholly a right seed; how then art thou turned into the 
degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?” (Jeremiah 
11:21). 

Ezekiel speaks of Israel as the vine (Ezekiel xv:2). Hosea 
bears witness against Israel under the figure of the vine. 
Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: 
according unto the multitude of his fruit he hath increased 
the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have 
made goodly images” (Hos. x:1). But aboveall Isaiah has 
a great message on Israel as the vine and the failure of Israel. 
It is the song of the vineyard contained in chapter v:1-7. 
He pictures first what the Lord did for Israel as the vine, and 
then pictures Israel’s failure. “Wherefore when I looked that 
it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” 
Then judgment is announced. “I will tell you what I will 
do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof and 
it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and 
it shall be trodden down.” The fulfillment of all this was 
at hand. Israel was about to crown its shameful history by 
casting out the Son who had come to the vineyard and by 
killing Him (see Matthew xxi:33-41). Israel as the vine had 
completely failed; its judicial blindness and world-wide dis- 
persion was near, not far away. 

But here is the trwe Vine. Israel is called in Isaiah “‘the 
servant of the Lord”; they failed, but Christ is the true 
servant. He is the true Israel (Isaiah xlix) and He is 


294 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


the true Vine, as He is the true Light and the true 
Bread. Upon the failure of Israel He announces Him- 
self as the true vine, and those who believe on Him as 
branches. What then is the meaning of this parable? In 
the interpretation of it we must first of all remember the 
purpose of a parable. It is to illustrate a great principle by 
certain figures and pictures. ‘To apply each part of a par- 
able to something definitely, or give it a literal interpretation 
has done much harm. ‘Let us, instead of perplexing our- 
selves with minor details, bear in mind that in interpreting 
each of our Lord’s parables, the great purpose for which it 
was delivered is ever to be born in mind, if we would under- 
stand it rightly.”* ‘To base some great doctrine on the 
figure of speech in a parable would lead, in some instances, 
to confusion. What is the purpose of this parable? The 
most prominent word is the word “‘fruit.”’ Six times we find 
this word and it leaves us therefore not in doubt that the 
purpose of the parable is fruit-bearing. Israel, the vine, had 
brought forth wild grapes; Israel, the fig-tree, had nothing 
but leaves; the branches of the olive tree were unbelieving 
and had to be broken off. But now the true source of 
fruitfulness for God is made known. It consists in living 
union, in the closest identification with Christ. This fact 
was prophetically hinted at in Hosea. There it is said of 
Ephraim, Israel, which had joined itself to idols, that in some 
future day they will say, ‘“‘What have I to do any more with 
idols? I have heard Him, I have seen Him ae 
Then the Lord says: “From Me thy fruit is found”? (Hosea 
xiv:8). And when the Holy Spirit after the departure of our 
Lord unfolds the fulness of Christianity, we read of the 
truth taught in this parable in the Epistle to the Romans. 
At the close of the sixth chapter of this great Epistle we read 
of believers being made free from sin, bearing fruit unto 
holiness. That this fruit is not produced by law-keeping, 
by the use of the law, to which the true believer is dead, is 
the teaching in the beginning of the seventh chapter. Then 
we read: “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead 
to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married 





*Dean Bourgon. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 295 


unto another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that 
we should bring forth fruit unto God.” This is the great truth 
the Lord illustrates in the parable of the vine and the 
branches. The marriage union is used in Romans to illus- 
trate the same principle. ‘The law could not produce fruit, 
but being married to Him who is risen from the dead, 
identified with Him, results in fruit bearing. 

Christ, not in incarnation, but risen from the dead, the 
corn of wheat, which fell into the ground and died, is the 
source of life and power, the source of true fruit unto God. 
This is the meaning of the figure ‘‘the true vine.”? Those 
who believe on Him, accept Him as Saviour, are consequently 
born again, and thus receiving the new nature, eternal life, are 
constituted branches of the vine. The life and nature which is 
in the vine is in the branch. The condition of fruit-bearing 
is that the branch abide in the vine. If the branch is not 
in the vine, the sap in the vine does not circulate in the 
branch; there can be no fruit and the branch withers and is 
dead; the only thing it is good for is to be cast into the fire 
and to be burned. The secret of fruit-bearing is, therefore, 
as mentioned repeatedly, to abide in Him and He in us, for 
without Him we can do nothing. 

But while He calls Himself the true vine, He also speaks 
of the Father as the husbandman. The vine needs the care 
of the husbandman, as also do the branches. We must not 
overlook the fact that the Son of God came to earth and 
brought fruit also unto God in dependence on the Father. 
He testified to this fact when He said: “The Father who 
abideth in Me doeth the works.”” As the Father was in Him, 
and He in the Father, so the true believer is in Christ, and 
Christ in him. To abide in Him means the con- 
tinued exercise of faith in Him, that faith which is the very 
breath of the new nature, which realizes constantly that 
Christ is all, that depends on Him for everything and knows 
its utter helplessness apart from Him. As a result of 
such dependence the believer clings close to Him and lives 
the life of close and intimate communion with Him. This 
is the true abiding in Him, and explains the meaning of His 
words: “‘Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot 
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can 


296 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the 
branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same 
bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me ye can do nothing.” 
But what is the fruit? The fruit which the branch bears is 
the fruit of the vine. It is the fruit of Himself, produced 
by the indwelling Spirit, the fruit which is like the true vine 
Himself; it is Christlikeness. If this fruit is lacking it is an 
evidence that the branch is lifeless. 

“Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh 
away, and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, 
that it may bring forth more fruit... If a man abide 
not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and 
men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are 
burned.” Here we face a difficulty. How can these state- 
ments be reconciled, some ask, with the teachings of Scripture 
of the perseverance in faith of the children of God, that a 
true believer can never be lost? The verses we have quoted 
have been used by many an Arminian theologian to con- 
tradict what so many other passages teach, that is, the eternal 
security of all believers. 

The branches which bear no fruit, which are taken away 
and finally perish do not represent true believers at all. 
Whenever a person takes upon himself the profession of a 
Christian, he claims by that outward profession to take the 
place, the position, the privileges and responsibility of a 
believer in Christ. He is in his profession a follower of 
Christ, a separated one and also a branch in the vine. But 
while his profession in churchmembership indicates all this, 
in reality this person is only nominally a follower of Christ, 
only nominally a branch in the vine, only nominally identi- 
fied with Christ. He has not the reality of it, he does not 
possess what he has taken upon himself in profession, for he 
was never born again. Asa result there is no fruit, because 
there is no life, Such a professing branch is here in view, a 
branch joined to the church by profession, but not joined to 
the Lord by a living faith and the power of the Spirit of 
God. That there are thousands upon thousands of such 
branches, dead and unfruitful in the professing church, does 
not need any demonstration. It is only too evident. Such 
will be taken away in judgment. But the real branches are 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 297 


purged (or cleansed) by the ‘Father, to bring forth more 
fruit. The evidence of being a living branch in the vine is 
the fruitage,and the Father who desires fruit does to the true 
believer what the husbandman does to the branch, in cutting 
away and cleansing, so that there might be more fruit. The 
cleansing is by the Word, and the different disciplines are 
providences which the Father graciously uses with His beloved 
children. 

In verse 6, the solemn warning, it must be noticed that 
our Lord changes his words from “‘ye” to “‘any one.” He 
does not say “If ye (His disciples as true believers) abide 
not in Me,” but, He says: “If any one (or man) does not 
abide in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and 
men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are 
burned.” This change of address is significant and con- 
clusive. The Lord thereby indicates that His true disciples 
are not meant by Him. He would not have it supposed that 
it might be possible for those who belong to Him, the gifts 
of the Father, in whom His own life dwells, to be cast forth 
and to share the fate of the wicked. In the next verse He 
speaks again of His true disciples, and not of a mere pro- 
fessor. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, 
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” 
Here is one of the secrets of effectual prayer, conditioned on 
our nearness to Him. 

“The doctrine here laid down and implied is a very remark- 
able one. There are some Christians whose prayers are more 
powerful and effectual than those of others. The nearer a 
man lives to Christ, and the closer his communion with Him, 
the more effectual will his prayers be. The truth of the 
doctrine is so self-evident and reasonable, that no one on 
reflection can deny it. He that lives nearest to Christ will 
always be the man that feels most, and prays most earnestly, 
and fervently, and heartily. Common sense shows that such 
prayers are most likely to get answers. Many believers get 
little from God, because they ask little, or ask amiss. The 
holiest saints are the most earnest in prayer, and they con- 
sequently get the most.’’* 


*Bishop Ryle. 


298 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


In bearing much fruit, His Father is glorified, and in glori- 
fying Him, whom the Son glorifies, we give evidence that we 
are His disciples. 

Verses 9-11. Could there be a greater comforting assur- 
ance than that which our Lord gave to His disciples and to us 
as well, contained in the ninth verse? “As the Father hath 
loved Me so have I loved you; continue ye in My love.” He 
was the Father’s delight and the object of His love. Who 
can measure the love which the Father has for the Son? And 
His own are now the objects of the love of the Son of God in 
the same degree as He is beloved by the Father. Believers - 
are the “Beloved of God called Saints” (Rom. 1:7). But in 
order to know this love, to enjoy it, we must continue, abide 
in His love. What it means to abide in His love is made 
known in the verse which follows. ‘If ye keep my com- 
mandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept 
My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” He 
walked in obedience as Man; His meat and His drink was 
to do the will of Him that sent Him, thus He abode in His 
Father’s love. This must be the path of His own. It is in 
practical obedience that we abide in His love; without it 
there can be no assurance and enjoyment of His love. 
“Hereby we know that we know Him, if we keep His com- 
mandments” (1 John ii:3). And if we fail in this practical 
obedience, as we often do, we flee to Him with confession and 
self-judgment and find that His mighty, loving advocacy 
restores us to the fellowship which disobedience severed. We 
call attention to the little word “as.” It is used by our 
Lord several times in these chapters. As the Father loveth 
Him so He loveth us. As He kept His Father’s command- 
ments so we are to keep His commandments. ds He is not 
of the world, even so are we not of the world (xvii:16). 4s 
the Father sent Him into the world even so has He sent us 
into the world. 

The blessed purpose of all these words is that His joy might 
remain in us and that joy inus might be full. He had spoken 
of His peace, the legacy He has left (xiv:27) and now He 
speaks of His “joy.”? His is the greatest joy, the joy of the 
Redeemer, who has accomplished redemption. ‘This was the 
joy set before Him, for which He endured the cross and 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 299 


despised the shame (Heb. xii:1-3). We can share His joy, 
and as we walk in His blessed steps, following Him as our 
pattern, abiding in Him and in His love, our joy in Him will 
be full. We rejoice with Him in the things in which He 
rejoices. 

Verses 12-16. In chapter xiii:34 He had given the new 
commandment that believers should love one another; this 
He repeats and adds again the measure of that love, “fas [have 
loved you.” The Holy Spirit in the Epistle to the Colossians 
speaks of true Christian conduct, “‘Forbearing one another 
and forgiving one another; if any man have a quarrel against 
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye”’ (Col. iti:13). 
If the words of our Lord were always practiced and this ad- 
monition of the Spirit of God obeyed, there would never be 
any disagreement or unpleasantness amongst God’s people. 
Some one writes: ‘“The crossness, spitefulness, jealousy, 
maliciousness and general disagreeableness of many high pro- 
fessors of ‘sound doctrine’ are a positive scandal to Christian- 
ity. Where there is little love there can be little grace.” 
With these words we fully agree. 

Then He spoke to them as His friends. They were Jewish 
believers, and as such under the old dispensation they were 
servants, but grace made them His friends (Gal. iv:1-7). 
The manifestation of the greatest love is to lay down the life, 
that is self-sacrificing love, dying for His friends. This love 
He manifested towards them by dying in their stead, and 
though He called them His friends, by nature they were, as 
we all are, enemies by wicked works, and as such we need 
His propitiatory death. ‘‘For when we were yet without 
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For 
scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure 
for a good man some would even dare to die. But God com- 
mendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet 
sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom. v:6-8). Such is the 
example of His love. And self-sacrificing love must be the 
measure of our love towards our brethren. Our relationship 
to Him as friends demands obedience. 

While it is true that every believer is a servant of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, the word servant in verse 15 refers to the 
state of Jewish believers under the law. Identified with 


300 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Him He constitutes us His intimate friends and introduces 
us to all things He has heard of the Father, making known 
to the believer’s heart through the Scriptures the deep 
things of God. We are reminded here of Abraham, not 
under the law-covenant (the law came 430 years after), 
but under the grace-covenant, that the Lord made the secret 
things known to him. Abraham is called the friend of God 
(Isaiah xli:8; James 11:23). The Lord came to Him in the 
garb of man and then said, ‘‘Shall I hide from Abraham that 
thing which I do?” And let us remember in that theophany 
the same One was revealed to Abraham who talked to these 
sons of Abraham in these blessed words. 

“Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and 
ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and 
that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask 
of the Father in My name He may give it you.”” The choice 
here means both the choice of eternal election to salvation 
and to the office of apostles. We did not seek Him, but He 
sought us when we were lost and completely undone. What 
a precious assurance it is, not that we have chosen Him, but 
that He has done so. The following remarks by the late 
Bishop J. C. Ryle give additional suggestions on this verse: 

“When our Lord says, ‘I have chosen and ordained you 
that ye should go and bring forth fruit,’ I think He refers to 
the work of conversion and building a church in the world. 
‘I chose and set you apart for this great purpose, that ye 
should go into all the world preaching the Gospel, and 
gathering in the harvest and fruit of saved souls; and that 
this work begun by you might remain and continue long after 
your deaths.’ And then to encourage the eleven, He adds, 
‘It was part of my plan that so bringing forth fruit, ye should 
obtain by prayer everything that ye need for your work.’ ” 

Verses 17-21. When our Lord says “these things I 
command you,” He had reference to all these instructions He 
had given to them. He speaks next of the identification of 
Himself with His disciples. ‘The blessed truth He states, the 
oneness of the believer with Himself, is fully made known in 
the Pauline epistles. For the first time He states the great 
fact that believers in Him, those who are the gifts of the 
Father, whom He hath chosen out of the world, are not of the 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 301 


world. In His highpriestly prayer we shall return to this 
great statement. He was not of the world, and those who 
are born again, in possession of the divine nature, are not of 
the world, even as He is not of the world. Because He is not 
of the world, the world which lieth in the wicked one hates 
Him, and it hates equally all who belong to Him. Alas! how 
little of this hatred from the side of the world is known today 
to true believers. Has the world changed? Is it no longer 
the evil world? Is ita different world from what it was 2,000 
years ago? Is it no longer in the wicked one? The world 
does not change in its moral aspect; it is the same evil age it 
has always been. Satan is still the prince of this world, and 
the god of this age. The world does not improve; it still hates 
Christ. But the trouble is with believers. They do not live 
out their separation. ‘They have forgotten the fact that 
believers are dead to the world and the world dead unto them. 
Nor are exhortations like James iv:4 and 1 John ii:15-17 
heeded. If we live as separated ones, bearing a definite 
witness in our lives as to our place in Christ, we soon shall 
find that the words of our Lord are still true. The servant 
is not greater than His Lord. They hated Him, they would 
hate them; they persecuted Him, and the disciples would 
also be persecuted. 

Verses 22-27. In verses 22 to 25 He gives a resume of the 
three years now closing He had spent in the midst of His 
people. He had spoken to them the words of life, revealed 
the truth, warned them, invited them, yea, He would have 
gathered them as a hen gathers her chickens, yet they would 
not. They compassed Him about with words of hatred; for 
His love they became His adversaries (Psalm cix:3-4). They 
hated Him, they hated His Father. He had done His 
mighty works and the works of the Father; they had seen 
both and hated both. Their own Scripture had been ful- 
filled, they hated Him without a cause (Psalm cix:3). 

Another announcement of the soon coming of the Paraclete, 
the Holy Spirit, sent by Him from the Father, the Spirit of 
truth, follows. When He comes He will testify of Him. This 
is the great work of the Holy Spirit, to bear witness to Christ. 
Chapter xvi:13-15 enlarges upon this. And when He has 
come, they also would be enabled to bear witness, on account 


302 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


of their association with Him from the beginning of His 
ministry. ‘This promise is repeated by Him after His resur- 
rection: ‘““But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy 
Spirit is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me 
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto 
the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8). 


CHAPTER XVI 


Verses 1-7. The chapter division at this point is un- 
fortunate. There should be no break between the last verse 
of the preceding chapter and the beginning of the sixteenth. 
He had informed them of the world’s hatred; it would be the 
same hatred with which the world hated Him. Linked with 
this information is the promise of the coming of the Holy 
Spirit to testify, and to enable them to be witnesses. The 
thought might have arisen in their minds that the coming of 
that Spirit would change things as far as the world is con- 
cerned. He guards them against such a false hope and gives 
a prophetic warning so that they might not be offended. He 
announces that they would be put out of the synagogue. 
Such an excommunication carried with it the meaning of a 
complete cutting off from the nation and the national hope, 
so that the Jew who was treated thus was considered out- 
side, like a heathen. It meant the loss of everything. The 
blind man whom the Lord healed (chapter ix) had been 
cast out of the synagogue. Such was to be their fate. But 
He predicts more than that. They would be killed, and their 
death would be considered service for God. This prophecy 
has been fulfilled in the entire history of the Church. Saul 
of Tarsus, the young Pharisee and son of a Pharisee, perse- 
cuted the Church and wasted it. He made havoc of the 
Church, entering every house and hailing‘ men and women and 
committing them to prison, and consenting to Stephen’s 
death (Acts vili:1-4).. He thought it was zeal for God, for he 
testified later “‘concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touch- 
ing the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Phil. 
11:6). And when this erstwhile persecutor had been saved, 
he also found out the truth of these words. The Jews hated 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 303 


him; they persecuted him, scourged him and tried to take 
his life, thinking, as he did once, that they were serving 
God. Behind all persecutions stands the liar and murderer 
from the beginning, that is, the devil. During the Middle 
Ages, when the papal persecutions swept over many lands, 
when the horrible inquisition ruled, with its satanic tortures, 
and countless thousands were put to a cruel death, popes, 
bishops and priests acted as murderers under the satanic de- 
lusion that they were serving God and the Church. 

The future will bring another fulfillment of the words of 
our Lord, for during the coming great tribulation pious 
Jews, who believe on Jesus as their Messiah, their coming 
King, will be martyred again. The prophet Daniel (chapter 
1x:19-22) and the book of Revelation (chapter xii) tell us 
of this. He is forewarning them and those who came after 
them, yea, His whole Church, what they were to expect dur- 
ing this present evil age. He did not speak of these things in 
the beginning, when they first followed Him, so as not to 
discourage them, but now He told them what the unbeliev- 
ing Jews and the hating world would do unto them. 

He told them that He was going back to Him who 
sent Him, and perhaps mournfully He added, ‘“‘None of you 
asketh Me, Whither goest Thou?” It is true Peter had 
asked the question, but at best it was just a question of 
inguisitiveness and not a desire to lay hold on the deeper 
meaning of His return to the Father. Instead of asking of 
Him more about that place to which He said He would 
soon go, and the future glory of which He had spoken, they 
were only moved by the thought that He would leave them; 
on account of this their hearts were filled with sorrow. His 
going away was expedient for them. ‘‘For if I go not away, 
the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart I will 
send Him unto you.” His going away meant, of course 
first of all, His sacrificial death on the cross, followed by His 
burial, His triumphant resurrection and His glorious ascen- 
sion, when He took the place on the right hand of God. As 
a result of His blessed work, the third person of the Trinity 
came down to earth, to take His place in and with His own. 
The presence, that is, the omnipresence of God the Holy 
Spirit in the true Church, and in every individual believer, 


304 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


is a better thing than the continued presence of our Lord on 
earth, in His state of humiliation. In this sense it was 
beneficial for them that He should go away. 

““The presence of the Holy Spirit is a greater comfort and 
advantage to us than the presence of Christ in the flesh. 
Christ’s bodily presence was comfortable, but the Spirit is 
more intimately a Comforter than Christ in His fleshly 
presence; because the Spirit can comfort all believers at 
once in all places, while Christ’s bodily presence can com- 
fort but few, and that only in one place at once. The bene- 
fit of Christ’s presence was great, but the advantage of the 
Spirit’s renovation and holy inspiration is much greater.” 

Verses 8-15. What the effect of the presence of the Holy 
Spirit means in the world is now taught by our Lord. These 
words are generally misunderstood. ‘The common interpre- 
tation is that the Holy Spirit convinces people that they are 
lost sinners, that they need righteousness and also convinces 
them of a coming judgment. Conviction of sin is certainly 
the work of the Holy Spirit, who also quickens those who 
believe, but this is not the teaching of the passage before us 
in this paragraph. Much depends on the right rendering of 
the word “reprove.” It has not the meaning of an inward 
conviction, but rather means a conviction by demonstra- 
tion. It means conviction by an unanswerable argument. 
The Holy Spirit on earth is the convicting demonstration of 
the world’s sin, for having cast Him out, and rejecting the 
Lord of Glory, and having not believed on Him. The world 
therefore is under condemnation and the Holy Spirit in His 
presence on earth bears witness to it. ‘Then the presence 
of the Holy Spirit is the convicting demonstration of right- 
eousness, because He has gone to the Father. The Son of God 
who lived the life of perfect righteousness on earth, who 
pleased God always, was condemned by the world as an 
unrighteous man. They cast Him out and all was done 
in the name of God. Perhaps some of them stood before the 
Cross when that dread darkness enshrouded the Lamb of 
God and heard the cry ‘““My God, My God, why hast ‘Thou 
forsaken Me?” and they may have imagined a vindication 
of their awful deed. But God in His righteousness acted in 
His behalf. He raised Him from the dead and gave Him 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 305 


glory. He rewarded Him who had been obedient to Him 
in His holy life, obedient unto death, the death of the cross. 
The world sees Him no more but the presence of the Holy 
Spirit demonstrates His righteousness and is the con- 
victing argument that He is at the right hand of God. And 
therefore but one thing remains for the unbelieving world 
with its guilt, and that is judgment. Already the prince of 
this world is judged, though the full sentence of judgment 
in the all-wise purpose of God is not yet executed. The 
Holy Spirit on earth therefore is the convicting evidence 
of that coming judgment. 

The many things which were on His loving heart they could 
not understand in their present condition. The coming of 
the Spirit would bring to them the revelation of these things. 
He is the Spirit of truth and therefore He will lead into all 
truth. The word truth, means both the written Word and 
the living Word. The Spirit has come to guide us into all 
truth, the truth as it is revealed in the Bible. Believers, 
many of whom are found in certain Pentecostal sects, who 
believe and teach that there is a Spirit-guidance indepen- 
dent of the Bible, by inward impressions, by dreams and 
visions, are deluded. Some have gone so far as to declare 
that their inward experiences are sufficient and that they 
have no more need to study the Word of God. And the 
Word of God, which is truth, witnesses of Him Who 1s the 
Truth. It is noteworthy that in the Greek the word truth 
in the above passage has the definite article—He shall 
guide you into all the truth. Through the written Word He 
guides to Him Who is the Truth, our Lord. 

He does not speak from Himself, that is in independence 
from the Father andtheSon. His testimony is the testimony 
of the Father and the Son, as the Son on earth heard the 
Father’s voice and spoke of that which He heard from 
the Father. Furthermore, He will show things to come. 
This was fulfilled in the inspired witness of the Apostles, 
Paul, Peter, John, James and Jude all bore a prophetic 
testimony; they prophesied concerning the future of the 
church, the evils to come, the coming of Christ and the day 
of the Lord. Let no one therefore think that the Holy 
Spirit continues now to give prophecies through individuals. 


a“ 


306 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


He has shown the things to come in the completed Word of 
God and we must turn there to know these future events. 

But His great work is to glorify Christ. Hereby may be 
known the real ministry of the Spirit, when Christ is exalted. 
The Book of Acts is a witness to all this. Peter on the day 
of Pentecost exalted Christ by the Spirit who filled him and 
used him as His mouthpiece. Every leading testimony in 
the Acts has but one theme, Christ. The heart filled with the 
Spirit, governed by Him, has but one ambition, to glorify 
Christ. And all things which are Christ’s, the glory the 
Father has given to Him, He will show to those who abide 
in Christ. 

Verses 16-24. What did our Lord mean when He said to 
His sorrowing disciples “A little while, and ye shall not see 
me”’ and “‘a little while and ye shall see me’? What is the 
meaning of ‘“‘a little while’? It has been applied to His 
death and resurrection in the sense that He meant it would 
be a little while until He would die and be buried, a little 
while and they would see Him in resurrection. ‘This view is 
untenable. Equally so is the view that the Lord meant by 
“the little while,’ the time when they would see Him, His 
second coming. 

It is true the same expression in the original is used in 
Hebrews x:37, where it undoubtedly means the return of 
our Lord, but this in itself is no proof at all that it must 
mean the same in this verse. If we consult the original 
language, we find that there are used two different verbs 
translated with “‘see.”? The first “‘see’? has the meaning of 
beholding with the physical eye; the second, used in the 
sentence ‘‘a little while and ye shall see Me,” has the meaning 
of “perceiving”’—that is, a spiritual vision. Inasmuch as the 
Holy Spirit employs these two words, the first one mean- 
ing an external perception by the physical eye, the other 
meaning a spiritual perception, our Lord could not have 
meant His second coming. It must be interpreted as the 
coming of the Holy Spirit to take His place as the other 
Comforter. ‘Through his office and work the believer beholds 
Him in faith who has gone to the Father. Such was the 
effect of the Holy Spirit’s filling Stephen. ‘But he being 
full of the Holy Spirit, looked steadfastly into heaven, 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 307 


and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right 
hand of God” (Acts vii:55). His, of course, was an actual 
vision, but the Holy Spirit in the believer gives the spiritual 
vision of Christ in glory. | 

This saying of our Lord occasioned new questionings 
among the eleven disciples. They were greatly puzzled 
about the expression, “‘a little while.” 

They frankly confessed that they did not know what He 
was speaking about. When they were thus conversing 
among themselves, they probably stood by themselves, 
withdrawing from the Lord a little distance. But He, the 
omniscient One, knew what they were talking about and what 
was on their hearts, and that they were anxious to ask 
Him. After stating Himself their perplexity, He said to 
them: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep 
and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sor- 
rowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” It is 
another “verily” with which He introduced this prophetic 
statement. The word used for weeping is the general word 
for external expression of grief; the word lament means 
to wail, and is used in connection with the hired mourners 
at funerals (see Mark v:38; Luke xxiii:27); the word sor- 
rowful expresses the inward feeling of the heart. Such 
were for the disciples the emotions connected with His 
death, the ignominous death of the cross, while the world, 
their enemies, exhibited a malignant joy. But the words of our 
Lord picture also the conditions prevailing throughout this 
age, the age called elsewhere, Man’s day. This age is 
for true believers an age of sorrow, weeping and lamentation, 
while the self-secure world, blinded by the god of this age, 
goes on with seeming Joy. 

This view is supported by His own words in Matthew 
ix:15, “Can the children of the bridechamber mourn as 
long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, 
when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and 
then shall they fast.” 

He speaks of a woman. When she is in travail to give 
birth to a child she is in sorrow, “‘but as soon as she is delivered 
of the child she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy 
that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore 


308 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall 
rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” This also 
refers to this age and the anguish and sorrow for His true 
people, looking forward to the time when all groaning, sorrow 
and pain ends for His waiting Church, when all His own, 
in the day of His coming again, will see Him as He is. Then 
the joy begins which will never end. ‘These words also have 
a more special meaning in connection with the close of the 
present age. Before the great promised regeneration takes 
place, when He will take His own throne (Matthew xix:28), 
there will be a great travail in pain and sorrow among the 
remnant of His people Israel. Of this the prophetic Word 
speaks repeatedly in passages like Isaiah xxvi:17; Ixvi:7, 
Hosea xiii:13 and especially Micah iv:9-10. Then the rem- 
nant of God-fearing Jews, typically represented by the 
eleven, will be delivered by His glorious manifestation. 

The verse division in verses 23 and 24 obscures the real 
meaning. ‘The first sentence of verse 23 must be added 
to verse 22, and the last sentence of verse 23 belongs to verse 
24. We read it correctly in this wise: “But I will see you again 
(at His coming glory) and your heart shall rejoice and your 
joy no man taketh from you. In that day (of His return) 
ye shall ask Me nothing.” The word “ask” is a different 
word from that used in the second half of verse 23. It 
means to ask questions, such as they were asking. In that 
coring day all believers shall know, as they are known, and 
shall look no longer in a glass darkly. Therefore, He said 
that in that day they will have nothing more to ask. 

Then we read verse 24 in this wise: ‘‘Verily, verily I say 
unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name 
He will give it to you. Hitherto ye have asked nothing in 
My name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be 
full.” It is the last “Verily” in the Gospel of John, in which 
this blessed word of precious assurance is so frequently 
used. It concerns prayer and its blessed use, after the 
coming of the Holy Spirit. Up to now they had prayed the 
prayer which any pious Israelite might pray, that form of 
prayer which He gave them on their request to teach them 
to pray, as John the Baptist had taught his disciples to pray. 
I'rom now on they were to pray in His name. And what a 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 309 


marvelous privilege it is—the God-given means of a full 
joy. The saintly Gerhard spoke of prayer as follows: 

“The benefit of prayer is so great that it cannot be ex- 
pressed!—Prayer is the dove which when sent out, returns 
again, bringing with it the olive-leaf, namely peace of heart. 
Prayer is the golden chain which God holds fast, and lets 
not go until He blesses. Prayer is the Moses’ rod, which 
brings forth the water of consolation out of the rock of salva- 
tion. Prayer is Samson’s jawbone, which smites down our 
enemies. Prayer is David’s harp, before which the evil 
spirit flies. Prayer is the key to Heaven’s treasures.” 

Verses 25-33. This paragraph records the final words of 
the memorable discourse of our Lord, preceding the greatest 
of all, His intercessory prayer. He reminds them first that 
He had spoken all these things in proverbs, or figures, show- 
ing that He knew how unable they were to comprehend all. 
But this would soon be changed, when He would show them 
plainly the Father. What time is this? No doubt the time 
when the Holy Spirit came toearth. The entire dispensation 
of the Spirit has brought to believers the full knowledge 
of the Father and the Son. The Fatherhood of God and the 
Sonship of the believer is the distinctive revelation given 
to the believing heart by the Holy Spirit. ‘“‘And because 
ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into 
your hearts, crying, Abba, Father’? (Gal. iv:6). “For ye 
have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but 
ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, 
Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with 
our spirit that we are the children of God” (Rom. vii: 
15, 16). Once more prayer in His name is mentioned by 
Him and the assurance given of the Father’s love, and that 
He will hear those who come to Him in His name. 

Verse 28. “I came forth from the Father, and am come 
into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the 
Father,” is a most important declaration. It is a summary 
of the whole Gospel of John in its scope. It is more than that. 
It contains all the great facts of His Person, His Glory, and 
His Work. Here we have His Deity; He came forth from 
the Father: His incarnation; He came into the world: 
His life on earth; His leaving the world supposes His sacri- 


310 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


ficial death and His resurrection: His going back to the 
Father; His ascension and glorification. 

This wonderful statement made a deep impression upon 
the disciples and seems to have clarified their vision. They 
acknowledged the plainness of His speech, that it was no 
longer in a figurative way He spoke. They had a vision of 
His Deity; they realized afresh that He knew all things; 
they expressed their faith that He came forth from God. 
And the Lord answered them by a word of warning. “Do 
ye now believe?” Is it so in reality? He knew their 
faith would soon be severely tested. As the disciples had 
said ‘““Thou knowest all things,” even so He knew what 
would happen. <A few hours more and they would be 
scattered; Peter would deny Him and all would leave 
Him alone. Then He added His own precious assurance. 
‘And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” 
But how can this be reconciled with the fact that He 
hung on the cross, and, when that dread darkness en- 
shrouded Him, uttered that unfathomable word, “‘My 
God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” There is no 
difficulty. Some speak carelessly of Him as being forsaken 
by the Father on the cross; but He was never forsaken by 
the Father. The Father never forsook Him; the Father 
never left Him alone. He was forsaken of God. 

And blessed are His words of comfort and cheer, not 
alone for those who heard Him, but for all His own. “These 
things have I spoken to you, that in Me ye might have 
peace.” Peace, true peace, lasting peace is only found in 
Him. He announces tribulation for His own in the world. 
“But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 311 


CHAPTER XVII 


We reach the most precious portion of our Gospel. The 
chapter which is now before us has rightly been called the 
Sanctum Sanctorum of the Gospel. It is the Holy of Holies, 
for we behold here our great High Priest in the presence 
of the Father, and we hear Him utter His great prayer of 
intercession. It is the true Lord’s prayer. The so-called 
Lord’s prayer, the “Our Father,” was given to His disciples 
in answer to their request, but He never prayed that prayer 
Himself. He spent nights in prayer on mountain tops, in 
desert places, but we do not know what He prayed, for it 
has not pleased the Holy Spirit to give us a record of these 
prayer nights. Here we have the words of the prayer which 
He prayed. It has depths which the finite mind cannot 
fathom. No saint can comprehend the full meaning of this 
great prayer. No complete exposition or interpretation can 
ever be given. Three of the Puritan preachers have expounded 
this chapter. Manton’s sermons on it make a volume of 
400 folio pages; George Newton’s exposition is contained 
in nearly 600 folio pages and Burgess’s sermons on this 
chapter comprise 700 large pages. But not one of these 
great preachers claimed to have given a complete exegesis 
or exhaustive treatment. If all the Puritan preachers and 
all the other men of God in all ages were to combine, they 
would not be able to exhaust the riches of the seventeenth 
chapter of John. 

We approach it, therefore, with the deepest reverence, for 
we are on holy ground. Let us remember that eleven men 
listened to Him praying. As they heard these blessed words, 
as they came from His lips, they learned afresh how He 
loved them, how He cared for them, what He had done for 
them, what He would do for them, and they heard also of 
their glorious future. Through these words of prayer they 
had a deep glimpse of His loving heart. And as we begin 
to meditate on His words we still hear Him pray, and as we 


Gr THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


listen to His voice we too shall learn more and more of his 
mighty love, the love which passeth knowledge.* 

Verses 1-3. ‘There is no need of speculating about the 
locality where this took place. Some think it was in the 
same place where He had given His farewell words; others 
think it must have been out in the open, and they surmise 
it may have been before He passed over Kedron to enter the 
garden. ‘The text shows nothing as to the exact place. He 
had finished speaking all these words, recorded in the pre- 
ceding chapters, and now He lifted up His eyes to heaven. 
From there He had come, a little while longer and He would 
go back to. heaven. Between the present solemn moment 
when He addressed the Father, and His physical return to 
heaven to take His place at the right hand of God, lies the 
cross, His sacrificial death, His burial and His resurrection. 
Many times before had He lifted up His eyes to heaven. He 
did so when He broke the five loaves to feed the thousands 
who had gathered. He looked to heaven when He healed the 
deaf and dumb. When He stood before the tomb of Lazarus 
about to raise him from the dead, He also lifted up His eyes 
to heaven. And how many more times He must have looked 
up! Then the first word came from His lips. He said, 
“Father, the hour is come.” Five more times our Lord 
uses the word Father in His prayer (verses 5, 11, 21, 24 
and 25). He is the Son of God and as such addressed God 
as Father. And all who believe on Him, and are therefore 
born again, born into the family of God, also lift up their 
eyes to;heaven and say with Him, Father. ‘“‘As many as 
received Him, to them gave He power to become the children 
of God, even to them that believe on His name, which 
were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of 
God” (i:12, 13). And because we are sons, God hath sent 
forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba, 
Father (Gal. iv:6). For through Him we both have access 
by one Spirit unto the Father (Eph. ii:18). 





*We do not care to say much about the views of the modernists. 
Their wicked infidelity becomes very evident when they claim that the 
Lord never uttered these words, and when they deny the Johanine 
authorship. They say that some unknown Greek writer, aided by the 
Pauline theology composed this prayer. This invention is as puerile 
as it is vicious. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 313 


The first thing He tells the Father is that the hour is 
come. What hour is it? Several times before He had spoken 
of that hour, that it was not yet come (chapter vii:30 and 
viii:20). It is the hour which had been fixed by the triune 
God before the foundation of the world; the hour which in 
the eternal counsels had been marked out for the sacrificial 
work and death of the Son of God, the appointed Lamb of 
God. For four thousand years the Spirit of God in the 
Word announced that hour. Beginning with the third 
chapter of Genesis where the fall of man is recorded, that 
hour becomes the subject of divine revelation. In type, 
history and prophecies it is constantly pointed out, the 
hour in which He should make “His soul an offering for 
sin.’ For the sake of that hour He had left the bosom of 
the Father, for that hour He had taken on in the Virgin 
birth the human body. It was the great end purpose of 
the incarnation. 

Then follows His first petition. “Glorify Thy Son, that 
Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” We notice first another 
striking evidence of the Deity of our Lord. Only one who 
is equal with God, who is God, could ever utter such words. 
They would be blasphemy in the lips of a mere creature. 
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has glorified the 
Father every moment during His life on earth and now He 
asks to be glorified, so that He might glorify the Father 
in being glorified. These words can only be explained 
in their meaning by what was to take place in the hour 
before Him, and what would follow that hour, namely, 
His sacrificial death, His burial, His resurrection and His 
exaltation to the right hand of God. ‘This glory He asked 
of the Father. And as a result of being thus glorified as 
the Lamb of God, the sin-bearer by His suffering and death, 
as well as His glorious resurrection and exaltation, the 
Father would be glorified. The work of God the Son in His 
suffering and the glory which followed, glorifies every 
attribute of the Father. It manifests His holiness, His 
righteousness, His justice, His mercy, His love and His 
faithfulness, as well as His power. In all the Son of God 
suffered as the sin-bearer the Father is glorified and in all 
He received in glory the Father is glorified. 


314 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Next the fact is stated by Him that the Father has given 
Him power, or authority, over all flesh, to bestow eternal 
life to as many as the Father has given unto Him. All 
power and authority belongs to the Son of God, and, in the 
realm of redemption, power is conferred upon Him by the 
Father. This power extends over all flesh, which denotes 
the entire human race, Jews and Gentiles. But all flesh 1s 
not being saved, but those who believe on Him, are the 
gift of the Father to the Son, and these constitute the 
members of His body.  Ultra-Calvinists apply the term 
‘fall flesh” to the elect only, but that is incorrect. ‘There is 
implied a redemption in its offer, but not in its results. The 
whole is given to Him, but only that He may impart eternal 
life to the chosen. Who are thus chosen is indicated in 
chapter vi:40, namely, “every one that seeth the Son and 
has faith in Him.” The gift He bestows upon those is 
eternal life, as we read in Romans vi:26, “The gift of God 
is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” What this eternal 
life is we have expounded before. But we read, “‘And this 
is life eternal, that they might know ‘Thee as the only true 
God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” Eternal 
life is something received, the impartation of a new nature, 
the divine nature. It is therefore a present possession and 
carries with it the positive and blessed knowledge of the only 
true God, and the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom the 
Father sent into the world. Such knowledge is out of the 
reach of the natural man. Such a one may have a head 
knowledge about God and Christ, but what is meant here 
is the true knowledge of God, and our Lord, and which is 
manifested in a life of righteousness, a walk in fellowship 
with the Father and the Son. 

Critics have made much of it that the third person is used, 
as well as the fact that our Lord speaks of Himself as Jesus 
Christ. It is true such a declaration is not found elsewhere 
in the Gospels, but this is not an evidence that a later writer 
composed this prayer, as the rationalists claim. ‘The time 
had come for Him to declare His Messiahship and He did 
so in His prayer, and called Himself Jesus the Christ, the 
Messiah, in the Father’s presence and within the hearing 
of His disciples. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 315 


Verses 4-5. We cannot be in doubt what the first part of the 
fourth verse means. It refers to His holy life on earth, in 
which He constantly glorified the Father. But what does it 
mean “I have finished the work Thou gavest Me to do’’? 
We have, in teaching on this chapter, always stated it 
means the finished work on the Cross. But some have a 
difficulty. If He meant the finished work, His death, how 
could He speak thus, when that work was still unfinished? 
We must remember that elsewhere in this prayer He speaks 
of being “no longer in the world” yet He was still here. In 
anticipation He looks onward beyond the cross. He knew 
His work could never fail, that it would be finished,and there- 
fore He gives expression to it in the presence of the Father 
and for the comfort of His own. Augustinus states this in an 
excellent way: “Christ saith He has finished, that which He 
most surely knows He will finish. Thus long before in 
prophecy He used verbs of past tense, when that which He 
said was to come to pass after many years. “They pierced 
my hands and feet’ He says, not they will pierce.” 

The fifth verse introduces us to one of the most striking 
utterances of our Lord, which demonstrates His Deity. 
If there were in the whole Bible no other statement revealing 
the Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ but only this fifth 
verse in this chapter, His Deity would be forever established. 
The self witness of our Lord as spoken to the Father tells us 
two things: He was with the Father before the world ever 
existed and He possessed glory with the Father. That out- 
ward glory, the very glory of God, for He is God, He had left 
behind when He came down to earth to be born in Bethlehem. 
Going back to Him who sent Him, He clothed Himself 
with that eternal Glory of Godhead. In what that glory 
consists we do not know, for it is unrevealed and passes 
our comprehension. 

Verses 6-8. After having told the Father about Him- 
self, the work He finished, and after requesting His glory, 
He speaks of those who belong to Him. Before Him, listen- 
ing to His petitions, were eleven men. What He says con- 
cerned them. But all believers are included as well. Verse 
20 makes this clear. 

The first thing He mentions in speaking about those who 


316 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


belong to Him, because they believed on Him as the Son of 
God, is, the manifestation of the name of God. Jews re- 
vered the name of Jehovah. Even at the present time strictly 
orthodox Jews are afraid to pronounce the name “Jehovah” 
and substitute in its place the name “Adonai.”? And now 
the Lord says, “‘I have manifested Thy name.” ‘The word 
manifest means literally “‘to cause to shine forth.” The 
name that was enshrouded in darkness, in thick darkness 
(Exod. xx:21), the name of Him who dwells in an unap- 
proachable light, which no man can find out by searching, 
is caused to shine forth through the Son. ‘“‘No man hath seen 
God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom 
of the Father, He hath manifested Him” (1:18). 

But what name of God has He made known? ‘The name, 
Father. David and the other inspired writers of the Psalms, 
like Asaph and the children of Korah, employed different 
names of God. Not once did they use the word “Father” 
in their prayers and hymns of praise. No prophet, priest or 
king of the Old Testament dispensation ever addressed God 
as Father. It is true nationally Israel was God’s firstborn 
son, and therefore God was the Father of the nation (see Isa. 
]xiii:18 and lxiv:8), but the individual knowledge of God as 
Father, andthe Fatherhood of God, His character and His 
attributes, could only be made known by the Son. All 
through the preceding discourse He had manifested to them 
what His Father is and as He knew Him. He did not speak 
about the Father to the unbelieving Jews, but only to His 
own. Well may we remember in these days of an obnoxious 
Modernism, that the knowledge of God as Father is only 
possible in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God. Apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ, the Virgin- 
born Son of God, who died for our sins, there is no Father- 
hood and Father-knowledge of God. It was after His death, 
resurrection and ascension that the full realization of all 
this was bestowed upon believers in the gift of the Holy 
Spirit. He is the Spirit of Sonship, by Him we cry, Abba, 
Father. 

“Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me; and they 
have kept Thy Word.” Believers are given, or entrusted 
(the meaning of the Greek verb) by the Father to the Son; 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Sig 


and now the Son tells the Father that they were His in the 
beginning. Some have applied this to Israel, the chosen 
people, but this is incorrect. It means all believers. All 
believers are given by the Father, predestined and chosen; 
their very number and names were known before the foun- 
dation of the world. ‘This is a wonderful fact which our 
finite minds cannot comprehend, but which we reverently 
believe. All true believers who believe and repent, who 
have received the Spirit, may fairly take comfort in the 
thought, that they were known and cared for and given to 
Christ by an eternal covenant, long before they knew Christ 
or cared for Him. It is an unspeakable comfort to remember 
that Christ cares for that which the Father has given Him. 
The fact that His own keep His Word, give attention to it 
and believe it, is the evidence that they belong to Him and 
are born again. 

He speaks of their knowledge. ‘They had realized that His 
words and His works were of the Father. While the enemies 
attributed His mighty works to satanic agencies and charged 
Him with blaspheming when He spoke of His Father and 
His union with Him, while others, like Nicodemus, were con- 
vinced that God was with Him, His own knew that all He 
said and all He did was of the Father. From Him they had 
received the Father’s words, believed them, and they knew 
that He had come from the Father. 

Verses 9-12. With the ninth verse the specifically inter- 
cessory part of His great prayer begins. He makes requests 
for those given to Him by the Father, and as we shall see, 
He prays for their sanctification, their union, their preserva- 
tion and their glorification. ‘I pray for them; I pray not 
for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me.” 
These words have been interpreted in different ways. Some 
teach that our Lord, when He said, “I pray not for the 
world,” meant that He did not pray at that particular time 
for the world, and that He certainly makes in heaven inter- 
cession for the wicked. Others say He is only praying for 
the elect and all others are excluded and have no share in 
His prayers. It is the question as to the character of His 
prayer. In His mediatorial work He is the mediator between 
God and man, and this certainly includes the unsaved world. 


318 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


But the prayer before us is the prayer of priestly intercession 
and that concerns only His people. The high priest in the 
Old Testament is the type of Him who is our great High 
Priest. Aaron carried upon His bosom the breastplate of 
twelve stones and upon his shoulders two stones. In the 
breastplate and the shoulder stones the names of the twelve 
tribes of Israel were engraven. He presented the people of 
God in the presence of the Lord and not the Jebusites, the 
Amorites or the Hittites. The Epistle to the Hebrews makes 
it plain that our High Priest appears in the presence of God 
only for those who believe on Him. ‘Those who do not be- 
lieve on Him, who reject Him, have no share and part in 
His priestly intercession. “Wherefore He is able also to 
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, 
seeing He ever liveth and maketh intercession for them” 
(Heb. viui:25). His priestly intercession in glory is occupied 
with His own. He prays for those given to Him by the 
Father, and who are the members of His body. The day is 
coming when that body is complete, when the last one given 
to Him by the Father is added to it; then that body will be 
taken to glory, in answer to the last petition in this prayer 
(verse 24). When the redeemed are brought to the Father’s 
house, those who died in the Lord, raised in incorruption, 
and those who live when His shout is heard, changed in a 
moment, then His prayer for His own ends. They need it 
no longer. Another request will He then make of the Father. 
He will pray for the world at that time. There is an un- 
prayed prayer, which our Lord has not yet uttered. In the 
second Psalm God addresses His Son: ‘‘Ask of Me and I will 
give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance and the utter- 
most parts of the earth for Thy possession.” ‘That prayer 
will be answered and at His second coming He will receive 
His blood bought inheritance and claim the uttermost parts 
of the earth. 

‘And all mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I 
am glorified in them.” This is a parenthetical statement 
and brings out once more the same truth so prominent 
in this Gospel, the unity which exists between the Father 
and the Son. What Luther said on this verse is true, “‘Any 
man may say, What is mine is thine, but only the Son can 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 319 


say, What is Thine is Mine.” His equality with the Father 
is testified to by Himself. All the Father is and has, He, the 
Son is and has. “Thine are Mine” means, therefore, Thy 
nature, Thy Name, Thine eternity, Thy holiness, Thy per- 
fection, Thy fulness, Thy glory, Thine attributes, Thy throne, 
Thy people, and everything else. Previously He had wit- 
nessed the same when He said, ‘‘All things that the Father 
hath are Mine; therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, 
and show it unto you” (xvi:15). Inasmuch as believers 
belong to the Father, are His gift to the Son, our Lord in 
this statement includes them. ‘Those who have believed 
on Me are Thine, O Father; they are Mine likewise. They 
are ours mutually, equally and eternally. What marvels of 
Divine Love and Grace we are facing in this unsearchable 
statement of our Lord! ‘Therefore because we are owned, 
possessed by the Father and the Son, our temporal and 
spiritual interests are their interests. We are the objects 
of the Father’s and the Son’s love and care. Here our faith 
rests. ‘Then we look onward to eternity and realize in the 
light of these words spoken by our Lord what glory awaits 
us in that everlasting fellowship with the Father and the Son. 

And He is glorified in them, that is, in His people. Be- 
lievers are the blessed and ever precious fruit of His own 
work; we are His workmanship. Our salvation and all that 
goes with it is His glory. His power, His faithfulness, His 
never-failing grace, all His loving-kindness and condescen- 
sion, as well as everything else He is, is glorified, manifested 
in His people. ‘There the Church, to which all true believers 
belong, is called His body, the fulness of Him who filleth all 
in all, It is His glory. 

“T am glorified in them.” We feel as if we could dwell 
on this sentence, and never weary of the wonderful theme 
it presents tous. It is a precious prism, every aspect of it 
sheds forth divine radiancy. Angelic might cannot display 
Christ’s strength so much as our weakness does, the riches 
of heaven cannot display Christ’s fulness so much as our 
poverty does; the holiness of the archangel cannot speak 
His praise so much as the covering of our righteousness does; 
the anthems of the seraphim cannot utter His glory as do 
the praises of the redeemed; and not all the worship of 


320 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


heaven’s hosts can render to Him so grateful an offering, or 
crown Him with so rich a crown, as the love of His pardoned 
people. ‘1 am glorified in them.”’* 

“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in 
the world, and I come to Thee.” That is, these words are 
an evidence that our Lord speaks of Himself, as having 
finished the work on the cross, risen and ascended to heaven. 
He was soon to be no more in the world and in anticipation 
He speaks of it as already accomplished. But while He 
went back to the Father, His own are still in the world. This 
fact that ‘‘these are in the world” is now in His intercessory 
prayer the chief burden. He speaks of them as being in 
the world, not of the world, hated by the world, and to be 
in the world, as He, the sent One of God, was in the world. 
His first petition is for their preservation. ‘This is the only 
time we hear our Lord addressing His Father as “Holy 
Father.”’ The reason why here only He mentions His 
Father as the holy Father is not difficult to discover. His 
own were left in an unholy world, surrounded by evil on all 
sides. As belonging to the Father and the Son they were 
called to holiness. He commits them, therefore, to the care 
and keeping of the Father, He who is holy and who is able 
to keep them free from the dominion of evil and able to 
make them sharers of His holiness (1 Peter i:14-17). He 
prays that the Father may keep them in the power of that 
name, which He had manifested to them. ‘That keeping 
means everything. Keeping from falling away, from evil 
doctrines, from being overcome by sorrow, or in tribulation 
and suffering, keeping them in life and in death. From this 
first petition of our Lord’s prayer we learn the absolute 
security of a true believer. If a true believer, one who be- 
longs to Christ, who has been given by the Father to the 
Son, for whom the Son of God intercedes, can be lost, it 
would mean the loss of Christ’s glory, the loss of a part of 
the travail of His soul. It would mean the helplessness of 
God in that He could not accomplish what He destined 
before the foundation of the world, and that the world, the 
flesh and the devil have greater power than God has. It 


*Rainsford. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 321 


would mean that Christ died in vain, and as a result of the 
loss of true believers, demons could forever sneer and mock. 
But the impossibility of this was taught before by our Lord 
(chap. x). Here He puts those given to Him by the Father 
into the Father’s hand and keeping. 

The second petition ‘‘that they may be one, as we are,” 
we shall examine more fully in connection with verse 21. 

He tells next to the Father that while He was with them, 
His disciples, He kept them. ‘“Those that Thou gavest Me 
I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdi- 
tion; that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”” And that one 
was Judas Iscariot, concerning whom the Lord said that it 
would have been better if he had never been born. Judas 
never had believed on Jesus as the Son of God. He did not 
own Him as Messiah and Lord. He addressed Him as 
Rabbi, and as we pointed out before, when the other apostle 
by name of Judas addressed Jesus by the divine name Lord, 
the Holy Spirit makes it clear, it was not Judas Iscariot 
who confessed Him thus (chaps. xiv:22). The Scriptures had 
foretold his case (Psalm |xix:25, cix:8), it was foreseen that 
he loved cursing and did not delight in blessing, that he would 
bea thief, and the Lord knew that he had a demon and would 
betray Him. Arminian theologians delight to quote Judas 
as an example that a believer can fall from grace, but he 
did not, for he never hadit. And what asolemn warning he 
is! A man may go far in professing discipleship and even 
enjoy special privileges, and yet be unsaved and on the road 
to eternal perdition. Churches are full today of unsaved, 
unregenerated, professing Christians. They are going to 
be lost, for they never were saved; church membership, 
ordinances and religiousness of an outward form does not 
save. Many have asked the question why was it ordered 
that there should be a Judas among the twelve? We give 
a good answer from another. “It may be this: our Lord, 
when He came to this world, came to be tried, He came to 
taste the sorrows and the difficulties of His people, so that 
He might know them all. There is not a greater trial or 
sorrow for a tender heart than unkindness and ingratitude. 
Here was one bound up with Him in the family circle, the 
constant companion of Christ, admitted to the closest 


322 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


fellowship, and yet a traitor to Him in heart, watching Him 
with malice, and betraying Him for thirty pieces of silver. 
I believe it was one of the bitterest of sorrows which He 
tasted here. Or it may be this: here was a traitor in the 
camp, a spy upon Christ, and if he had discovered a fault 
in thought, or word, or deed, he would have been ready to 
tell it, ready to expose and exaggerate it, but it is something 
glorious to hear this enemy forced to confess, ‘I have sinned 
in that I betrayed innocent blood.’ ”’ 

Verses 13-16. All these words addressed by our Lord to 
His Father were spoken audibly in the presence of His dis- 
ciples. ‘They heard every word which fell from His lips. 
This is the meaning of the phrase, ‘“These things I speak in 
the world.” ‘The purpose was that His joy might be ful- 
filled in them. The joy of which He speaks is His joy, 
which is His to bestow, of which He is the author and the 
giver, and of which He Himself is the object. It is His own 
personal joy which He imparts to those who have trusted 
in Him and walk in His fellowship. When the disciples 
listened to His prayer they knew nothing of that joy. It 
became their abiding portion after the Holy Spirit, the other 
paraclete, had come upon them. Then they entered into 
His joy and realized all it meant. This joy is ours, too, 
and belongs to all the children of God. It is the joy of salva- 
tion, the joy which comes in believing, which is the result 
of trusting in Him and accepting the bounties of His grace. 
Thus we rejoice in the knowledge that our sins are forgiven, 
that we are reconciled, that God is our Father, the Son of 
God our Loving Lord and Friend, the Holy Spirit our in- 
dwelling guest, and that the Father’s house is our blessed 
and eternal home, where we shall meet Him, to be forever 
with the Lord. And we rejoice in Him. The fulness of joy 
is He Himself. Rejoice in the Lord is the repeated ex- 
hortation of the Spirit of God. “In whom, though now ye 
see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable 
and full of glory.” 

With verse 14 our Lord prays concerning His own as 
present in the world, though no longer of it, but called to 
be His representatives down here. He speaks of having 
given to them His word. The Father had sent Him, the 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 323 


Word; He is the expression of the Father’s mind.* He had 
entrusted to them the Father’s Word for the purpose that 
they should in the world reveal and manifest that Word. 
Such is the calling of a true believer in Christ. And the 
world, of which John in his epistle bears witness as lying 
in the wicked one, hated them. The world can do nothing 
but hate that which the Father has given, for this world is 
controlled and governed by its god, which is Satan, the 
prince of this world. But there is another reason why the 
world hates those who are Christ’s. The Lord states it in 
that profound declaration ‘‘Because they are not of the 
world, even as I am not of the world.” This is stated once 
more by Him in verse 16. It is a great declaration of tre- 
mendous meaning, but alas! how little it is understood and 
how little is the great truth it contains manifested in the 
lives and in the conduct of God’s children. 

Our Lord was not of the world. In Him was no evil, no 
sin; He had no fallen nature. The prince of this world 
came and found nothing in Him. Because He was not of 
the world, not indwelt by the principles which govern the 
world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of eyes and the pride of 
life, He lived that holy life in which He glorified God. We 
are by nature of this world. We have a fallen nature because 
we are conceived and born in sin. We are enemies by wicked 
works and linked with the author of sin. Yet the Lord Jesus 
Christ speaks here of His own as being not of the world, 
even as He is not of the world. His disciples as well as we 
and all other true believers are by nature all which we state 
above. But when we believe on Him we are born again. 
In the new birth we receive the divine nature, and of that 
new nature, the nature imparted by the Spirit of God, it is 
written, “‘Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; 
for His seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because 
he is born of God” (1 John iii:9). The Son of God, our Lord 
could not sin; and the new nature, the divine nature, re- 
ceived in the birth from above, cannot sin. When we sin as 
believers, it is our old nature. In this blessed sense, then, 


*In verse 8 a different word is used than in verse 14, where the word 
employed is ‘Logos,’ the same as used in the first chapter of this 
Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word”—Logos. 


324 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


are believers no longer of the world, even as He is not of 
the world. He has taken those who believe on Him out of 
the world, by separating them from the world and unto 
Himself, and giving them the divine nature. 

Because believers are not of the world, even as He is not 
of the world, they have the capacity to walk even as He 
walked (1 John ii:6) and be His representatives. If believers 
live according to His calling, separated from the world, they 
will be hated by the world. But if the believer is conformed 
to this world, loves the things of the world, lives a worldly 
life (as so many professing Christians do), they know nothing 
of that hatred. The separated life stirs up the world, and 
especially the “religious world” and hatred follows, for the 
faith and the corresponding life of separation condemns the 
world. If we were more consistent in our lives, more out- 
spoken, more faithful in our daily witness, more separated 
from the ways and methods of this evil age, we would also 
find out that it is still true that the world hates us. But, on 
the other hand, believers must guard against courting the 
world’s hatred by discourtesy or by erratic ways and man- 
ners. How soon a believer may forget this weighty saying 
of our Lord, “not of the world, even as I am not of this 
world!’ It can be realized only as we keep our hearts and 
minds fixed upon Him in yonder glory and our heavenly 
calling in Him. As a result the Holy Spirit will lead us into 
an unsparing self-judgment as to our ways. 

“That the world improves for Christ or His own is as 
false as that the flesh can ameliorate. Such a belief is light 
become darkness and how great is that darkness! There 
may not be the reflex of the latter part of the first chapter 
in Romans, but it answers to the beginning of 2 Tim. iii. It 
is the natural man knowing enough to forego what is shame- 
less, and to invest all with a religious veil; it is the world 
essentially occupying itself with the things of God in pro- 
fession, but in reality of the world, where common sense 
suffices for its service and its worship, and the mind of Christ 
would be altogether unapplicable. What a triumph for the 
enemy! It is just what we see in Christendom; and noth- 
ing irritates so much as the refusal so to walk, worship, or 
serve. It does not matter how loudly you denounce or pro- 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 325 


test; if you join the world, they will not mind your words, 
and then you are faithless to Christ. Nor does it matter 
how much grace and patience you show; if you keep apart 
as not of the world, you incur enmity, hatred and contempt. 
To act as not of the world is felt to be its strongest condem- 
nation; and no meekness or love can make it palatable. 
Nor does God intend that it should, for He means it as part 
of the testimony of His Son. And as the world neither 
receives nor understands the Father’s word, so it hates those 
who have that word and act upon it.’’* 

His prayer for His own is not that they should be taken 
out of the world, but that the Father should keep them from 
evil. ‘This does not clash with the great revelation the Lord 
gave later to the Apostle Paul. The time will come when 
the Lord in glory will ask the Father for the taking out from 
the world of all who belong to Him. In fact He requests 
this later in His prayer (verse 24). When that prayer is 
answered He will ‘‘descend out of heaven with a shout, with 
the voice of the archangel and the trump of God.” Then 
the righteous dead will be raised from among the dead, the 
living believers changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye and caught up together with them in clouds to meet 
Him in the air. Then all are taken out of the world. But 
the time for that was not yet when He spoke these words 
of prayer, nor is the time now. His own are to remain in the 
world for a very definite purpose. Many a believer, if not 
all, would love to leave this dark world with its conflicts 
and troubles behind at once to be with Him forever. If the 
Lord would take all true believers at once out of the world, 
it would be disastrous to the believers, as well as to the world. 
Believers need the conflict, the trials, the bitter experiences 
in the world for their own good. Well has it been said 
“Believers would never value Christ and heaven as much 
as they will do one day, if they had not been kept here on 
earth, taught to know their own hearts, and be made like 
Him, perfected through suffering.” It would be equally 
disastrous to the world itself if all true believers were at once 
taken out of it. The world would be deprived of the 


*William Kelly. 


326 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


testimony and the light which believers are called to give 
and be. Supposing all these eleven men had been taken with 
Christ to glory, when He left the earth, how could the world 
have received a testimony apart from them and believe? He 
still leaves us here for the double purpose, for our own good, 
and for the good of the world. When the hour comes, 
scheduled before the creation of the world, when His body 
shall be joined to Him, every true believer will be taken out 
of the world. Here also is a refutal of asceticism. Men and 
women still shut themselves up in cells to be separated from 
the world, to flee from it. But this cowardly desertion of 
the world, as practiced in Romish monasteries, is not Chris- 
tianity. It is a pagan institution. Buddhism and other 
Oriental religions have their monasteries, and practice the 
same asceticism as Rome. 

Instead of asking that they might be taken out of the world, 
He prayed “that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” 
Does this mean evil in the general sense of the word, or does 
it mean “the evil one,” that is Satan? The Greek may mean 
both, evil and the evil personified in Satan. We think the 
evil one is meant. It has this meaning in Matthew xiii:25, 
38 and 39. John in His first epistle uses the same expression 
and there it always means the evil one. See 1 John 11:13, 14; 
11:12; v:18. What we call evil, trials, losses, bereavements, 
temptations, persecutions, slanders, etc., are the things which 
all must work together for our good. It is inconceivable 
that our Lord should have prayed that His own might be 
kept from this. The devil is a roaring lion seeking to devour 
the children of God and Satan transforms himself into an 
angel of light. His aim is to destroy or to corrupt those who 
belong to Christ and snatch them out of His hands. Hence 
our Lord prays the Father that they may be kept from the 
evil one. And when he comes to ask for them, as he asked 
for Job’s testing and for Peter, the intercession of Christ 
in the behalf of His beloved ones keeps them from being 
overcome. “I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail 
not,” He said to Peter before Satan ever appeared to sift 
him as wheat. 

Then once more He tells the Father of the position of His 
disciples. ‘“They are not of the world even as I am not of 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 327 


the world.”” As He overcame and Satan’s power could not 
harm Him, so His own, no longer in the domain of the power 
of darkness, but belonging to Him, will be kept. 

Verses 17-19. ‘To the most precious things already men- 
tioned by the praying Lord He adds now the petition for the 
sanctification of His disciples. “Sanctify them by Thy 
Truth; Thy Word is Truth.”’ Many expositors have greatly 
misunderstood the meaning of this simple request. ‘They 
speak of it as if the Lord requested their setting apart for 
ministry. We quote from one of these expositors: ‘“The 
original may mean either ‘consecrate’ or ‘sanctify.’ It 
means both to set apart from a common to a sacred use, 
and also to make holy for that use; in other words, it may 
mean to make holy in mission and in character. ‘The former 
is evidently the meaning here; Christ prays that the Father 
will set apart His disciples to a life of divine service as priests 
unto God.” But this view is incorrect. ‘The petition for 
their santification must be connected with the preceding 
verse, which we quote once more, ““They are not of the 
world, even as I am not of the world.”” As we have pointed 
out before, believers in Christ as the Son of God, as these 
disciples were believers, have received the new nature, the 
divine nature, and inasmuch as it is a holy nature they are 
constituted in Christ Saints, they are sanctified. The peti- 
tion which follows for their sanctification by the Truth of 
the Father concerns the believer’s practical sanctification, 
how they are to live as not of the world in a life of separa- 
tion. ‘This is accomplished in the first place by the Father’s 
Word, that word which is ‘Truth, while He whom the Father 
sent and through whom His Word is given, is the Truth. 
As the believer walks in the truth, the truth made known 
by the Father through the Son, he is increasingly sanctified 
and enabled to walk even as He walked. It reminds us of 
chapter vi:32: “And ye shall know the Truth, and the 
Truth shall make you free.” In his expository thoughts on 
the Gospel of John, the late Bishop Ryle makes some ex- 
cellent remarks on sanctification which will be helpful to 
all. He gathers four great principles from this petition of 
our Lord. 

(1) The importance of sanctification and practical god- 


328 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


liness. Our Lord specially asks it for His people. Those 
that despise Christian life and character, and think it of no 
importance so long as they are sound in doctrine, know very 
little of the mind of Christ. Our Christianity is worth noth- 
ing, if it does not make us value and seek practical sancti- 
fication. 

(2) The wide difference between justification and sanc- 
tification. Justification is a perfect and complete work ob- 
tained for us by Christ, imputed to us, and external to us, as 
perfect and complete the moment we believe, as it can ever 
be, and admitting of no degrees. Sanctification is an in- 
ward work wrought in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and 
never quite perfect so long as we live in this body of sin. 
The disciples needed no prayer for justification; they were 
completely justified already. They did need prayer for their 
sanctification; for they were not completely sanctified. 

**(3) Sanctification is a thing that admits of growth; else 
why should our Lord pray, ‘Sanctify them’? The doctrine 
of imputed sanctification is one that I can find nowhere in 
the Word of God. Christ’s imputed righteousness I see 
clearly, but not an imputed holiness. Holiness is a thing 
imparted and inwrought, but not imputed. 

“‘(4) The Word is the great instrument by which the Holy 
Spirit carried forward the work of inward sanctification. 
By bringing that Word to bear more forcibly on mind and 
will, and conscience, and affection, we make the character 
grow more holy. Sanctification from without by bodily 
austerities and asceticism, and a round of forms, ceremonies, 
and outward means, is a delusion. True sanctification begins 
from within. Here lies the immense importance of regularly 
reading the written Word, and hearing the preached Word. 
It surely, though insensibly, promotes our sanctification. 
Believers who neglect the Word will not grow in holiness and 
victory over sin.” 

The next sentence is closely linked with the petition for 
the sanctification of His people, ‘“As Thou hast sent Me into 
the world, even so have I sent them into the world.” While 
believers are not of the world even as He is not of the world, 
they are in the world as His representatives, sent into the 


world, as the Father had sent Him. What a high and holy 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 329 


calling this is!) Well may we cry out, ‘‘Who is sufficient for 
these things”! While this applied first of all to the disciples 
who surrounded Him then, whom He sent forth as His 
messengers, it equally applies to us. We are His sent ones. 
As such we must be holy, separated from evil. As His rep- 
resentatives and witnesses we need to be spotless and blame- 
less, and for this He prayed when He said, “‘Sanctify them.” 

Another important statement follows: “‘And for their 
sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified 
through the Truth.” Here is the second means for the 
sanctification of believers. They are not only practically 
sanctified by the Word, His Truth, but He Himself for their 
sakes has sanctified Himself, that by this sanctification they 
also might be sanctified through the Truth. Most exposi- 
tors apply these words of our Lord to His sacrificial death 
on the cross. They claim that it was then He sanctified 
Himself for us, that is, in the offering of His body. It is 
true that the believer is set apart, the meaning of the word 
sanctified, by the death of Christ, for we are sanctified 
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ (Heb. x:10), 
but this is not the real meaning of the words spoken by our 
Lord. If His sanctification meant the work of the cross it 
should have preceded the prayer-petition, sanctity them by 
Thy Truth, for all practical sanctification is the result of His 
work for us on the cross. 

But our Lord sanctified Himself in another way. He set 
Himself apart to God after His passion; He went to heaven, 
receiving glory at the right hand of God, and is now in His 
risen and glorified humanity the image of God (see 2 Cor. 
iv:4). In that glory light in which He has set Himself apart 
for our sakes He is the pattern of His own redeemed ones. 
What He is they all shall be in that glorious day when He 
will be manifested, when all His own will see Him as He is 
and will be like Him. He is the Firstborn among many 
brethren, and ultimately all His own, whom He is not 
ashamed to call brethren, will be conformed into the same 
image of Himself in resurrection glory. The contemplation 
of this wonderful truth, the highest and the best, leads to 
our own sanctification. As we behold His glory as in a glass 
we are changed into the same image from glory to glory. 


330 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


It is the contemplation of, and the heart occupation with 
Christ glorified and we in Him, which detaches the believer 
from the world and leads Him in the path of separation. 
For this He prayed. First, that the Father’s word He had 
communicated to His own might sanctify us, and that His 
own place in glory at the right hand of the Father might 
accomplish our sanctification also. 

Verses 20-21. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for 
them also which shall believe on Me through their word; 
that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me and I 
in ‘Thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world 
may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” We hear from His 
own blessed lips that all believers are included in this gracious 
intercession. If this word had not been spoken one might 
think that He prayed only for His disciples, but His words tell 
us that all His Saints at all times are included. They all need 
preservation, sanctification, and His ministry as priest and 
advocate. He prayed for all coming believers, for generations 
upon generations, including ourselves, whom He knew would 
be given to Him by the Father. 

His petition is for their unity. In verse 11 He had prayed 
also “‘that they may be one as we are.” In that verse it 
concerned the Apostles. It was accomplished in them by 
the power of the Holy Spirit. Here is another and larger 
unity, for all who believe on Him, which means again all 
future believers, are to be one. Unbelievers have fre- 
quently ridiculed this request of our Lord as they pointed 
to the many denominations, the different creeds, cere- 
monials, and the confusion which exists in professing Chris- 
tendom, and then claimed that Christ’s own prayer has 
never been and never will be answered. But our Lord 
did not pray for an outward unity expressed in an im- 
posing organization. The true Church, the body of Christ, 
Is not an organization but an organism, with the Head in 
glory and members put into this mystical, invisible body 
by the operation of the Holy Spirit. The unity is a unity 
in the Father and in the Son, ‘‘that they also may be one 
in us.” It is that fellowship with the Father and with His 
Son Jesus Christ of which John writes in his first epistle 
(1 John i:2). It is fellowship in virtue of the Father made 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 331 


known in the Son, and of the Son the object of the Father’s 
love and delight, into which all true believers are brought 
by the Holy Spirit. As we delight ourselves in the Son we 
are one with the Father, for He is His delight; as we know 
God as our Father and the Father’s love, we are one with the 
Son. This is the unity of which our Lord speaks here. Into 
this spiritual unity, Jew, Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond 
and free are brought in Christ. The Jew hated the Gentile 
and the Gentile hated the Jew; one was bitterly opposed to 
the other, hating and being hated. But now this unity, this 
blessed oneness! Jew and Gentile in Christ, the middle wall 
of partition broken down, both having access by one Spirit 
unto the Father! 

And this unity needs to be manifested in a practical way, 
that is in love for the brethren, for all the Saints. In this 
is the call for the world to believe that the Father sent the 
Son. Not through the law but by the coming of the Son 
of God these blessed results have been brought about. 
Whenever believers walk in fellowship with the Father and 
the Son and in fellowship one with another, loving each 
other with a pure heart fervently, they bear a witness to 
the world that the Father sent the Son, for it is the work of 
Christ which has accomplished this. Alas! that the world 
in our own day should have so very little of this witness! 

Verses 22-26. He had prayed for the preservation and 
the sanctification of His own, and now He prays for their 
glorification. It is a wonderful legacy which the Lord of 
glory bestows upon His people and with which He introduces 
the final section of His prayer, “The glory which Thou hast 
given Me I have given them.” Commentators have fairly 
wrestled with the question, what did our Lord mean with 
these words? What glory is it He promises to give? We 
mention a few of the different opinions. 

Augustinus and others with him thought it is immortality 
and glory which those received who have served Him 
faithfully. Calvin stated that it is the restoration of the 
image and likeness of God. Bengel, the author of the Gno- 
men, declared that the glory means that insensible power, 
influence and authority, which accompanied all our Lord 
did and said during his earthly ministry. Zwingli, Brentius 


332 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


and others taught that the glory is the power of working 
miracles, while two other well known exegetes, Stier and 
Hengstenberg held that the glory is unity of mind and 
heart. Even so good an expositor as Bishop Ryle says, 
“the question will probably never be settled.” 

There is no difficulty whatever connected with this saying 
of our Lord. Like the other statements “I have finished the 
work Thou gavest Me to do,” “I am no longer in the world,” 
the gift of His glory was spoken in anticipation of His 
resurrection. In resurrection the Father rewarded Him for 
His faithful work. This is the demand of the righteousness 
of God. His ever blessed Son came to earth, glorified 
Him in His holy life, and finally glorified Him in His death 
on the cross, in which He vindicated the holy character 
of God and satisfied His righteousness in behalf of lost 
sinners. ‘This demanded a reward. ‘The reward is that 
God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. It 
is the truth stated elsewhere, as in Phil. ii, ‘‘Being found in 
fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient 
unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God 
also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which 
is above every name.” ‘This acquired glory it is which He 
gives to His own. It is a most refreshing and wonderful 
truth. The Son of God came to die for our sins and when 
He died as our substitute He took upon Himself all which 
we deserved as guilty sinners—Jesus paid it all. Then 
God, because He did this work, righteously rewarded Him, 
because He and He alone deserves a reward. This reward 
consists in glory. Then our loving Lord gives the glory 
He deserves and He received to all those who belong to 
Him. He makes His own sharers of His acquired glory. 

It is not difficult to find the acquired glory of our Lord 
in the New Testament. It is sevenfold. We mention 
them briefly and show how the believer participates in 
these acquired glories. (1) He received in resurrection the 
glory of sonship, inasmuch as He is the First begotten from 
among the dead. We share this sonship with Him and are 
sons of God in Him. (2) Then God made Him the heir of 
all things (Heb. 1:2). The International Bible Student Asso- 
ciation, also known as Russellites, sometimes give this fact as 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 333 


an evidence that the Lord Jesus Christ was a created Being 
and not very God, that He received divinity after His 
death. Such an argument shows the ignorance of these 
people. Christ is God and all the glory of God is His glory. 
But to make redeemed humanity, redeemed through His own 
precious blood, sharers of all things, God made Him heir 
of all things as the head of the new creation. And we are 
heirs of God and fellow-heirs of Christ. (3) God gave Him 
a glorious place for a reward. He seated Him at His own 
right hand. The man in Glory is as near to God and as 
dear to God as any Being can be. He holds a place higher 
than the angels. In Him we are seated in the heavenly 
places of Christ Jesus. (4) He received as His reward a 
glorious name, ‘‘the name which is above every other name.” 
And it is written “I will give him a white stone, and in the 
stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he 
that receiveth it,” the promise to the overcomer (Rev- 
elation 11:17). “‘And I will write upon him My new name” 
(Rev. ii1:12). “‘And they shall see His face, and His name 
shall be in their foreheads” (Rev. xxii:4). (5) He received 
the glory of Priesthood, being constituted a priest after the 
order of Melchisedec. And we are priests with Him. (6) He 
is made King of kings and God will give Him the promised 
kingdom. The throne over all the earth is His and the 
nations will yet be His inheritance. His own are to reign 
and rule with Him. (7) Finally He received the glory of 
Judgeship. All judgment is committed to Him. This 
also His own will share with Him, for it is written “Do ye 
not know that the Saints shall judge the world? Know ye 
not that we shall judge angels?” (1 Cor. vi:1, 3). 

Such are His acquired glories and our participation in 
them. ‘The consummation of all is not now but in that 
coming day of glory, ‘“‘when He is manifested we shall be 
manifested with Him in glory.”’ It is the day in which He 
will come “‘in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the 
holy angels” (Luke ix:26). His own will be with Him in 
that glory; they shine in His glory. Therefore in that day 
He will receive the request of His lips and the desire of His 
heart (Psl. xxi:2). Then He will receive the travail of His 
soul and be satisfied when “He cometh to be glorified in His 


334 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


saints, and to be admired in all them that believed” (2 Thess. 
i:10).. Thus shall we be perfected in one, and the world will 
then not be called upon to believe that the Father sent His 
Son, but the world will know. Faith will be changed into 
sight. ‘There will be a glorious public display, when the Son 
brings many sons in His glory. In that day the whole 
world will know and all the present day infidelity will be 
forever banished. It will be the answer of God to all the 
inventions of modern rationalism as upheld by the liberal 
teachers in Christendom. It will be the answer of God to 
silence the delusion cults. It will be the means of the con- 
version of the remnant of Israel. 

Then follows that blessed and gracious petition, which to 
the full still remains unanswered. “Father I will that they 
also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; 
that they may behold My glory, for Thou lovedst Me before 
the foundation of the world.”’ It is His Prayer for the glori- 
fication of His people. In praying He uses a word which He 
used nowhere else, the word “I will.” The original verb 
(Delo) has a meaning of a positive purpose. It is therefore 
more than a mere request, it is a demand. He had promised 
them “I will come again and receive unto myself that where 
I am ye may be also (xiv:3)” and now He tells the Father 
what He wills in behalf of His own, because His will was in 
perfect harmony with the Father’s will. Here is the blessed 
hope for those who belong to Him. It is not the visible 
manifestation, but the home-bringing of those who are His. 
How this will take place is revealed in that great revelation 
given to the Apostle Paul by the Word of the Lord and 
recorded in 1 Thess. iv: 16-18. It awaits its glorious ful- 
fillment. The same Lord who promised “I will come again,” 
the same Lord who prayed ‘‘Father, I will,” the same Lord 
who is our intercessor in the presence of the Father, will 
descend out of heaven with a shout. The great transforma- 
tion will take place. The sleeping saints (as to their bodies) 
whose spirits are in a disembodied state in His presence, 
will receive their resurrection bodies, and we shall be changed 
to be caught up together with them in clouds to meet the 
Lord in the air. Then shall we be with Him where He is and 
share His glory as well as behold His own glory, which here 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 335 


is the glory which is proper to Himself, as the object of the 
Father’s love, a love which goes beyond the time of the 
world’s foundation. What will it be when it shall be done! 
What glory is our happy and eternal portion! 

Then He tells the Father of the contrast between the 
world and His own. “O righteous Father, the world hath 
not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these have 
known that Thou hast sent Me.” 

Before He had addressed the Father as “Holy Father,” 
but here He speaks of Him as ‘‘Righteous Father.’ That 
righteous Father the world did not know, and all along His 
gracious ministry the world refused to know Him. But He, 
the Son, has known Him, though He walked in the garb of 
a servant, having humbled Himself, yet all along He knew 
the Father, even as He had said before, ‘“‘Neither knoweth 
any manthe Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever 
the Son will reveal Him” (Matt. xi:27). Then He spoke of 
His disciples, “these have known that Thou hast sent Me,” 
and in this knowledge that the Father sent the Son, they 
know and have the Father also. It was His comfort that 
while the world knew Him not, His disciples knew Him and 
were in the fellowship with Him and the Father. 

This great chapter ends with the final word which He 
prayed. It is another word of comfort and cheer when He 
tells the Father, ““And I have declared untothem Thy name, 
and will declare it; that the love wherewith Thou hast 
loved me may be in them, and I in them.” ‘To make the 
Father’s Name known to those whom the Father had given 
Him had been His ministry to the disciples. Only He who 
knew the Father could make Him known. But this ministry 
is not confined to the past, it is a present ministry, for He 
says, ‘‘and will declare it.”’ Therefore, from heaven, He 
continues to make known to the hearts of those who believe 
on Him, the Father and the Father’s love, so that all may 
have the consciousness of the same love which rested upon 
Himself when He was on earth. He Himself is identified 
with His own; Heisin them. And the marvelous thing is 
that we all can say in faith, “I am loved ‘as, He‘is, loved.” 
Our poor doubting hearts object, and the thought comes of 
our weakness, our imperfections, our sinfulness. May we 


336 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


realize that we are beloved thus not on account of any 
loveliness which is in us, but because we are in Him, who is 
altogether lovely. Because we belong to Christ, are in Him 
and He is in us, because we are one with Him, of His flesh 
and bones (Ephes. v) we are loved as He is loved. We close 
our meditations on this most precious and holy portion of the 
Gospel of John with the words which George Newton, the 
puritan preacher, put at the close of his exposition of this 
chapter. 

“How earnest and importunate is Christ with God the 
Father, that we may be one here, and that we may be in one 
place hereafter! Oh, let us search into the heart of Jesus 
Christ, laid open to us in this abridgment of His intercession 
for us, that we may know it and the workings of it more and 
more, until at length the precious prayer comes to its full 
effect, and we be taken up to be forever with the Lord, and 
where He is there we may be also.” 


CHAPTER XVIII 


Verses 1-11. A comparison with the account of the ar- 
rest of our Lord as given by the synoptics, with what John 
records will show marked differences, but certainly not dis- 
crepancies. Matthew, Mark and Luke speak of the agony 
in the garden; Luke only reports the sweat in the garden, 
like great drops of blood, but John does not write anything 
of this agony at all. He passes it over, for his pen is guided 
by the Holy Spirit, to bring out in his Gospel the glory of 
Christ as the Son of God, therefore describing His sublime 
Deity; there was no need of mentioning the agony in the 
garden, or the blood-sweat of the Son of Man. But John 
mentions things which are omitted by the other evangelists. 
He alone names the brook Cedron; he tells us of the collapse 
of the mob which had come to arrest Him, and only John 
gives the name of the disciple who drew the sword. All these 
differences are for a purpose and were ordered by the Spirit 
of God. 

The brook Cedron (Kidron) is repeatedly mentioned in 
the Old Testament. It means “the black torrent.” When 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 337 


Absalom started his rebellion against his father, David went 
weeping across that brook (2 Sam. xv:23). And now He, 
whom David called His Lord, the root and offspring of David, 
went across the same brook, to the place where in agony of 
soul He offered up prayers and supplications with strong 
crying and tears (Hebrews v:7). He is now to drink “‘of the 
brook in the way” (Psalm cx:7). His deepest humiliation 
was at hand, the path which led to the cross and from there 
to glory. There is a tradition that our Lord followed the 
way by which the scape goat, the Azazel, was sent on the 
day of atonement into the wilderness. He crossed the brook 
and His disciples with Him. We do not know if there was a 
bridge to cross or if they waded through the swollen winter 
stream. Perhaps the latter was the case; for the greater 
part of the year the brook was dry. He was going through the 
deep waters of death, through which He went as once the 
ark of God carried by the Levites made a way through the 
waters of Jordan. The brook forded, they were in the garden, 
the garden of Gethsemane. Augustine in his comment on 
Gethsemane said: “It was fitting that the blood of the 
great physician should there be poured out, where the disease 
of man first began.” It is of course, not true that His 
blood was poured out in the garden; it was poured out on 
the cross. But the suggestion is correct. It was in a garden 
where the fall of man took place, and our Lord’s entrance 
into the garden marks the beginning of his great sacrificial 
work as the seed of the woman, first announced on the 
scene of man’s fall. 

He entered that garden with His disciples. It was a 
familiar place to Him, for often had He been there before, 
perhaps in anticipation of the final visit when His hour had 
come. Judas knew the place and knew that our Lord often 
passed the nights out of doors. Judas through the influence 
of the chief priests had with him a detachment of Roman 
soldiers; then there were the officers, that is the temple 
police, quite a large company. In spite of the full moon 
they carried, besides their weapons, lanterns and torches, 
if necessary to seek the prisoner among the darker recesses 
of the garden. It was a great multitude, perhaps several 
hundred men (Matt. xxvi:47). Jews and Gentiles were 


338 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


thus represented in the mob ready to seize upon the Lord of 
glory and lead Him forward to the death of the cross. Did 
they expect resistance, or perhaps a demonstration of His 
power? He knew beforehand all things that should come 
upon Him. He had a perfect knowledge of all the suffer- 
ing and shame which awaited Him. He knew it before the 
foundation of the world. He knew it in time. It was 
always before Him, even in His tender years. He saw it 
in Scripture. He knew every blow which was to be dealt 
Him, the smiting of the cheek, the plucking of the hair, the 
spitting in the face, the cruel Roman scourging, the crown 
of thorns, the nailing to the cross, all the shame and the 
suffering on that cross. “There was no need of searching for 
Him. Majestically, when the mob led by Judas advanced, 
He stepped ahead of His disciples and said, “‘Whom seek 
ye?’ His hour was come. If it had not yet come, then 
not all the treachery in the world, nor Rome’s power could 
have laid hold on Him. And if He had spoken but a word 
another angel of the Lord would have smitten the great 
multitude, as once he smote the proud army of Sennacherib. 

His question is answered. ‘They seek Jesus of Nazareth. 
It is evident from what we read in Matthew and Mark that 
many of the company did not know Him by sight. Judas 
had given them a sign, the sign of love, the kiss, so that they 
might know which one it is. When was that kiss given? 
It must have been given after the Lord had answered their 
question. The next moment brings His answer, “I am.” 
It must be noticed that here, as it is in John iv:26, the word 
‘the’ is in italics, it is supplied. In chapter viii:58, He had 
told the Jews, ‘‘Before Abraham was, I am.” 

Enraged by His use of the divine title, *“‘I am,” from which 
they surmised that He claimed to be the I am, Jehovah, 
they attempted to stone Him. Here once more He uses 
the same “J am.”’ But now they are not picking up stones to 
stone Him, but when He had said, “I am,” they all fell back- 
ward to the ground. What a spectacle it must have been 
when all these men, that great multitude, fell helpless, 
backward to the ground, while He stood there in all His 
dignity! It was a demonstration of His Deity and, as such, 
a miracle. Not one Roman soldier nor the Jewish officers 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 339 


could stand on their feet. An irresistible power prostrated 
them to the ground. The miracle occurred for two reasons. 
First to show to the disciples, and to His enemies as well, 
that He is the Lord of glory. It was His own omnipotent 
power which He displayed once more. For this reason it is 
embodied in the Gospel of John, written to show that Jesus 
is the Christ, the Son of God. In the second place, it hap- 
pened to show that His arrest and subsequent crucifixion did 
not take place because He could not help it, but because He 
was willing to have it so. Perhaps Psalm xxvii:2 may be 
taken as a prophecy of what happened here. ‘‘When the 
wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to 
eat me up, they stumbled and fell.”’ Well has an ancient 
commentator said: “If He did this when about to be judged, 
what shall He do when He sits in judgment? If He did this 
on the eve of death, what shall He do when He comes to 
reign?’ Then all His enemies will lick the dust. Then 
every knee must bow, of beings in heaven, on earth and under 
the earth, and every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ 
is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 11:10, 11). 

For the second time, probably after the whole company 
had risen to their feet, He asks the question, ““Whom seek 
ye?” And when He spoke the second “I am,” they did 
not fall to the ground. ‘There was no second exhibition of 
His power, but He manifested His grace. ‘‘Jesus answered, 
I have told you that I am he; if therefore ye seek Me, let 
these go their way.”’ Then the Spirit of God reminds us that 
it was spoken, what He had said in His great prayer, 
“Of them which thou gavest me I have lost none.”” Willingly 
He stretched forth His hands, to let Himself be bound, on 
the condition that His own should be free. He.is the Good 
Shepherd ready to give His life for the sheep. 

Then Peter acted. He comes forward to resist, perhaps 
encouraged by the power which had been manifested. He 
had been sleeping when he should have been watching and 
praying. He acted in the same spirit in which he said to the 
Lord, when He had announced His passion, “‘Be it far from 
thee, O Lord!’ His hasty action was out of keeping with 
the grace the Lord was showing. He marred it all when he 
drew the sword and dealt Malchus, the servant of the high 


340 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


priest, a blow which cut off his ear. All the other Gospel 
records mention this incident, but only John gives the name 
of the servant and the name of Peter. Peter probably tried 
to kill Malchus, but God in His mercy prevented this. As 
we learn from the Gospel of Luke, the Lord touched the ear 
of Malchus and healed him instantaneously. It was the 
last miracle of physical healing our Lord performed, and in it 
He manifested His wonderful grace, to one who was an 
enemy. Some of the present day “healers,” who claim to 
do the same miracles of healing which Christ did, say that 
faith is necessary for healing. ‘They declare where there 1s 
no true faith and trust in the Lord He is unwilling and 
unable to manifest His power. ‘The incident here disproves 
their claims. This Jewish servant had no faith in Christ, 
nor did he trust in Christ for healing. 

“Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the 
sheath; the cup which my Father hath given unto me shall 
I not drink it?” It was a rebuke to Peter. He wanted to 
prevent Him from drinking that cup, which the Father had 
given to Him, the cup concerning which He had pleaded a 
little while before in those memorable words, ‘‘Father, if 
thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not 
my will, but thine be done.” He came to drink that cup 
and in perfect obedience, as the hour had come, He takes it 
to empty it to the last drop. 

“The believer will note the bearing of our Lord throughout 
these closing scenes—His lowliness, His dignity, His infinite 
superiority to all who surrounded Him, friends or foes, 
His entire submission and withal His power intact. Heisa 
Man, sent One of God, throughout. It is He who shelters 
and secures the disciples; it is He who offers Himself freely. 
The traitor and the band, the torches and the weapons, 
had all failed, if He had not been pleased in letting His own 
go to give Himself up. For this He had entered the world, 
and His hour was now come. But it was His own doing and 
according to the will of His Father.” 

Verses 12-14. These three verses give an incident in the 
passion of our Lord which is not mentioned by the other 
three Gospels. Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas. 
Annas had been appointed high priest of the Jews in the 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 341 


year 7 A.D., but had been removed by the Roman Procurator 
several years previous, and Joseph Caiaphas, his son-in- 
law, had been appointed in his place. In Luke iii:2, both 
are called high priests, and in Acts iv:6 and xxiii:2, the title 
is given to Annas. This is not a contradiction. The prob- 
able explanation is that while Caiaphas held the office, he 
was really controlled by his father-in-law, whom the Jews 
probably regarded as their true high priest, in opposition 
to the Roman deposition of Annas. At any rate, we know 
from the Jewish historian, Josephus, that the office of the 
high priest, when our Lord was here, was characterized by 
disorders and irregularities. It seems Annas was the con- 
trolling spirit and a great politician..; There were not fewer 
than twenty-eight high priests from} the reign of Herod to 
the destruction of the temple by Titus in,the year 70. Of 
these, five, besides Caiaphas, were sons of Annas. 

They bound first the willing victim. If they had known 
that He whom they bound with cords is the Creator of all 
things, and that those hands uphold all things, and that some 
day He will be their judge, what terror would have struck 
their guilty consciences. They acted under the power of 
darkness and their eyes were blinded. But they needed not 
to bind Him. He would not have escaped to be free. He 
yielded Himself and gave Himself over to them, or they could 
not have bound Him. We are reminded by John that 
Caiaphas was he who gave counsel to the Jews, that it was 
expedient for one man to die for the people. (See John 
xi:49-51.) 

Verses 15-27. While the other disciples were scattered 
two of them followed Jesus. Peter, as we know from the 
other Gospels, followed Him ‘‘afar off.” He is making a 
feeble attempt to make good his boast. What feelings must 
have surged in his bosom! He loved the Lord. He is filled 
with anxious care; he wants to see what will happen to Him. 
Yet his first step towards his shameful denial was done when 
he followed Him afar off. He chose the middle of the road. 
Instead of clinging close to the Lord he lagged behind, and 
soon the enemy swept him off his feet. 

There are men today who may well take a lesson from 
Peter. They claim to be the “middle of the road men,” 


342 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


They declare that they believe in the Bible, they believe in 
Christ, but they want to be charitable and not to be out- 
spoken for the fundamental truths of the Gospel. They 
do not want to be classed with these premillennial conserva- 
tives, nor do they want to be classed with the Modernists. 
They keep in the middle of the road. We have watched 
some of them and found out later that the middle of the road 
led them to deny Christ. In our perilous times the safest 
place is on the Lord’s side, not partly so, but wholly. 

Who is the other disciple? Some have thought it was 
Judas. But there is no evidence whatever that it was the 
traitor. ‘There is no difficulty in identifying this other 
disciple with John. In chapter xx:2, 3, 4 and 8 the same ex- 
pression is used, and in these passages it is John; so it is 
John here also. John evidently was well acquainted in the 
palace of the high priest and knew him personally, so that 
he had no difficulty in entering in with the Lord. How the 
humble Galilean fisherman had become acquainted with the 
influential Caiaphas is not stated. Commentators have ad- 
vanced all kinds of theories. One made the conjecture that 
John being a fisherman might have become acquainted with 
the high priest when he came to Jerusalem to sell his fish. 
It is of little profit to find out these minor details, which are 
omitted on purpose in the Word of God. Those who main- 
tain that the other disciple was not John point to Acts iv:13, 
where Peter and John stood before Annas and Caiaphas, but 
both seemed to have been unknown to them. For this reason 
some suggested that the other disciple might have been 
Nicodemus, but he could hardly be called a disciple. 

Peter stood outside. Admittance probably was refused to 
him by the doorkeeper, because he was a stranger. What a 
good thing it would have been for him if he had remained 
outside. But the other disciple was anxious for him to gain 
admittance also; he spoke to the woman who acted as door- 
keeper. Little did he think of the consequences for his com- 
panion which his introduction to the girl at the door would 
have, by which Peter was enabled to enter. Someone said 
Peter should have gone away when the door was shut for 
him. “It was by God’s providence that the door was shut. 
He got a warning then to leave off but would not. These 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 343 


impediments, cast in our way when we purpose to do a 
thing, should not be idly looked at.”? Yet the word spoken 
by our Lord concerning Peter’s denial had to be fulfilled. 

The portress recognized him. She must have seen him 
somewhere for she put the question to him at once, “Art 
thou not also one of this man’s disciples?’ Perhaps she only 
surmised this. Certainly she had not assumed a threatening 
or accusing attitude. The lie which Peter told when he 
answered, “I am not,” was but the result of what had gone 
before. He had been self-confident. In the garden instead 
of watching and praying, he had relaxed and fallen asleep. 
Here is the fruit, so often repeated in the lives of the Lord’s 
people. Here also Peter’s impulsive character, so unstable, 
comes to the front. A short time ago he would face the 
garden mob single handed with a sword, and now he is so 
scared by a damsel and her question that he seeks refuge in 
a cowardly lie. He enters through lying and something 
worse follows. It was a cold night and there was a coal fire 
which was surrounded by the servants and officers, the 
enemies of Christ who had arrested Him and were now to 
drag Him from place to place. This miserable company 
Peter joined to warm himself too and to give the impression 
that he also belonged to this group. It was another lie, for 
by mingling with these enemies he tried to conceal his 
identity. And at the other end of the hall stood the Lord, a 
prisoner. 

Then the judicial examination begins. This examination 
is not recorded in the preceding Gospel records. Annas asks 
Him two questions as to His disciples and as to His doctrine. 
The object of the first question was to get information about 
His followers and evidence against them. He ignores the 
first question and says, “I spake openly to the world; I ever 
taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whether the Jews 
always resort; and in secret I have said nothing. Why 
askest thou Me? Ask them which heard Me, what I have 
said unto them, behold, they know what I said.” It is a 
very dignified answer. He had taught for three years; all 
was done openly. Not like others who were deceivers did 
He plot in secret, but in many synagogues, besides in His 
temple visits He taught the truth. There was no need for 


344 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Annas to ask such a question. Furthermore he and his son- 
in-law Caiaphas had sent officers at a certain time to report 
His teaching. They had returned with the testimony that 
never spake man as He did. Why should then he, the judge, 
ask of a prisoner to say that which might be used against him? 
It was not fair nor reasonable. That there is a striking dif- 
ference between the words of our Lord here, and the words 
which he used before Caiaphas and the council, as reported 
by Matthew, Mark and Luke, is known to all thoughtful 
readers of the Gospels. It is explained that here in John 
we have another examination before Annas which the 
Synoptics do not record at all. 

Then one of the officers offended by His dignity and His 
just and fair demand, smote Him with his hand. The Greek 
literally rendered means “‘gave a blow on the face,” which 
probably was done with a staff, in fulfilment of Micah v:8: 
“They shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the 
cheek,” This was probably the first blow our blessed Lord 
received in His passion. 

How calm and perfect is His answer to the insulting and 
painful blow! “If I have spoken ill, bear witness of the ill; 
but if well, why smitest thou Me?” His sublime perfection 
is seen in this terse answer. ‘There was no defense from His 
side. Yet His answer is a rebuke. Luther remarked on 
this: “‘Christ forbids self-defense with the hand, but not with 
the tongue.” In what a different manner Paul acted when 
he was treated in a similar way (Acts xxiii:3). Then Annas 
sent Him away to Caiaphas. 

Peter was still warming himself as the Lord was led away. 
Perhaps the coal fire flared up and the company he had 
joined began to notice him. They may have noticed his 
Galilean dress and suspected him at once to be one of the 
disciples. ‘‘Art thou not also one of his disciples?” What 
will Peter say? Undoubtedly, he had watched from a 
distance what had been going on. He saw, too, how the 
officer had struck the face of the Lord. He fears the worst 
for himself and so he utters his second denial. ‘He denied 
and said, I am not.” But something worse is in store for 
him. “One of the servants of the high priest, being his 
kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not I see thee 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 345 


in the garden with Him?”’ As he becomes the center of 
observation, one scans his features more closely and then 
expresses his conviction that he was surely in the garden 
with Him. And this one happened to be a relation of 
Malchus. Supposing it should be found out that he, Peter, 
wielded the sword which wounded Malchus, what would be 
the consequences for him? Poor Peter! for the third time 
he denied His Lord and Master, and as we learn from the 
other Gospels, he did this with a loud voice, cursing and 
swearing at the same time. Then the cock crowed. It was 
the awakening cry for Peter. It must have been to him a 
veritable thunderclap. The words of the Lord came back 
to him: ‘“‘before the cock crows thou shalt deny Me thrice,” 
and thrice he had denied Him. From the other Gospel 
records we learn that the Lord looked upon him as He left 
the hall, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. 

The fear of man bringeth a snare, and ‘‘What blinding 
power of the enemy thus to involve a saint in direct and 
daring falsehood, and thus to dishonor Him, who was his 
life and salvation! But of what is not the heart capable 
when the Lord is not before it, but fear or lust or aught else 
by which Satan beguiles? God, however, took care that the 
dread of man to His dishonor should cover the guilty dis- 
ciple with self-reproach and utter contempt and humiliation, 
when an eye-witness could brand him before all with his 
reiterated lying in denial of his Master.’’* 

The denial of Peter has many lessons. It shows where a 
saint will drift to if he, like Peter, neglects to watch and to 
pray. It shows what is in our poor human hearts, what 
even His choicest saints are capable of doing. And it brings 
out the loving tenderness and mercy of our Lord in Peter’s 
restoration. And He is still the same who “restoreth my 
soul.”” 

Verses 28-32. Our Lord’s examination before Caiaphas 
and the Jewish Sanhedrim, which the three preceding 
Gospels, the Synoptics, mention, is passed over by John and 
instead he describes more fully the trial before the Roman 
governor, Pontius Pilate, adding certain facts which the 


*W. Kelly. 


346 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


other Gospels do not state. There is no use to inquire into 
the reason why this is the case. If these documents were 
simply historical, produced by men who write history, 
criticism of their work and their motives would be in order. 
But they did not write as historians, but were the chosen 
instruments of the Spirit of God who guided their pens. 
The author of these records had His good reasons why He 
held back certain information from the three men who wrote 
their accounts many years before, and used John to add the 
things they had to omit. We know, however, the scope 
and purpose of each Gospel record accounts, at least 
partially, for these differences. 

It was early in the morning when they led their willing 
victim from Caiaphas to the judgment hall. ‘The Greek 
for “‘early’’ is the same used in chapter xx:1, so that it was 
between daybreak and sunrise. The judgment hall was 
the praetorium, the governor’s palace. Josephus, the great 
Jewish historian gives the information that the governors 
appointed over Judea had their residences in Caesarea, 
but when they visited Jerusalem they used the palace of 
Herod for their residence. / 

The account shows the feverish haste with which these mur- 
derers pushed on. They could not wait till daybreak, but 
dragged the Son of God, before the day had fully come, into 
the presence of the Gentile official, When they reached the 
praetorium they halted. They feared defilement. According 
to the interpretation of the law by the Pharisees, entering 
the abode of a Gentile meant their defilement, and would 
exclude them from eating the passover (Num. ix:6-11). 

The Lord Jesus had spoken of “straining at a gnat and 
swallowing a camel” (Matt. xxiii:24), and had called them 
more than once “hypocrites.”” Such they were. They had 
scruples about entering the house of a pagan, but had none 
whatever in bringing false witness against the Lord of glory 
to secure His condemnation by fraud and violence. Cere- 
monial defilement they feared, but not the committing of the 
sin of all sins—the rejection of the Just One, whom they 
betrayed and murdered (Acts vii:52). 

But is it any better today in Christendom? ‘The Ritualist 
and the Rationalist manifest the same hypocrisy. ‘The 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 347 


outside of the cup is kept clean, the inside is full of filth and 
abomination. The Mexican bandit, and others in countries 
where Rome rules, will be very conscientious in going to mass, 
and going through all Romish superstitious inventions, 
while at the same time he schemes and plans his crimes, 
which do not seem to affect his conscience in the least as long 
as he has done his superstitious ceremonies. So it is in 
ritualistic Protestantism. It is the same in Modernism. 
The Modernist hypocrite can make much about moral reform; 
speak of evils in the world which ought to be remedied, 
put on a goody-goody front as a minister of righteousness, 
but, at the same time, he can deny that which is the founda 
tion of all righteousness in the world, the revelation of God 
in His holy Word, the Bible, and sneer at the Virgin-birth 
of our Lord, and in denying His Deity betray Him many 
times more than the Jews did when they haled Him before 
the Roman Governor. 

Pilate, perhaps hearing the clamoring mob at such an 
early hour, or being notified by the guard, went out to them 
and said ‘‘What accusation bring ye against this man?” 
The Valerian law among the Romans demanded a definite 
charge against a person before that person could be con- 
demned. So, as the highest magistrate, Pilate inquires as 
to the charge. The question put by Pilate was curt. They 
answered him in a disrespectful manner, which the proud 
Roman must have resented very much. ‘If He were not a 
malefactor, we would not have delivered Him up unto thee.” 
The shrewd character of the Jew comes here to the front. 
The answer insinuates that the governor had said something 
foolish in demanding the nature of the accusation. ‘“‘Do 
you think we would trouble you at this early hour if we 
brought to thee an innocent man and not an evil-doer?”’ 
But they aimed at something else. They tried to get the 
sentence of death signed without any hearing whatever 
before the civil court. ‘‘Is it not sufficient that we have 
found out ourselves that He is guilty? What is the use 
of having another examination? Pronounce the sentence 
of death!” The Governor answered them in another short 
sentence. ‘““Take ye Him, and judge Him according to 
your law.” He evidently did not want to have anything 


348 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


to do with this case at all. From the other Gospels we learn 
that the motive of their accusation was “‘envy.” Pilate’s 
wife had also warned him not to have anything to do with 
this just person, for she had a significant dream about Him. 
The miserable coward he was, for political reasons, fear- 
ing man, he tried to evade the issue. 

Perhaps Pilate thought they did not want Him to be 
executed, but that He should be chastised according to 
Roman law. If he did his wrong conception was at once 
dispelled by the answer from the Jews. “It is not lawful for 
us to put any man to death.” The authority of the Roman 
government over the nation demanded that they had no 
longer the right to pronounce the sentence of death. The 
power which had conquered them had the exclusive right. 
They confessed themselves that what the prophets had 
predicted should happen had come to pass, when the iron 
heel of Gentile power would be upon the nation. But it also 
came about in this way, so that the prediction of our Lord 
might be fulfilled. At least two of the Lord’s sayings are 
in view here. He had predicted several times that He would 
be delivered by them into the hands of the Gentiles. This 
was now being done. In chapter xii:33 He predicted also 
death by crucifixion. Stoning was the mode of death used 
by the Jews. It was a mob, and not the law, which stoned 
Stephen, the first martyr. Rome had invented a more 
horrible form of death. Criminals were put to death by 
crucifixion, This was now to be fulfilled, what He had said, 
that He should be lifted up. 

Verses 33-40. From Luke xxiii:2 we learn that the Jews 
then stated their lying accusations. He called Jesus with 
a loud voice to follow him (the meaning of the Greek word) 
inside of the palace to speak with Him privately. What we 
read from verse 33 to the unanswered question in verse 38, 
“What is truth?” happened inside of the palace,and the mob 
outside did not hear a word of it. The first question which 
the Roman asked Him was the question concerning His King- 
ship. “Art Thou the King of the Jews?” Pilate had evi- 
dently heard of the accusation brought against Him, and 
more than that, he could not have been ignorant of Jewish 
prophecy and the expectation of the coming of the Messiah, 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 349 


the son of David. The Roman historian Suetonius in his 
work states that at that time there was a widespread an- 
ticipation that a great king was about to take control of 
Jewish affairs and would rule in due time over the whole 
world. Pilate must have known of this. Each of the Gospels 
state this question of the governor, so that there can be 
no question it was uppermost in the mind of this man. 
He, therefore, examined Him concerning His kingship. 
Then he sentenced Him as King and had Him crucified 
as King, and put above the cross the fact that He is the King 
of the Jews, so that there might be no mistake about it. 
Strange it is in view of all these facts concerning the Lord 
Jesus Christ coming as the Messiah, the promised King, 
preaching the kingdom first to Israel, that certain teachers 
can deny this, and invent a theory which lacks scriptural 
support and which opens the door to the postmillennial 
hypothesis. 

The Lord answered him with a question: “‘Sayest thou 
this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of Me?” 
Of course, He knew why Pilate had asked the question. 
He knew also the motive which had inspired it. He did 
not ask the question for information, but rather to speak 
through it to the conscience of the man who was to be His 
judge. If it had been a Roman officer who preferred this 
charge of being a rebel against the Government it would 
have been a serious matter, requiring the most painstaking 
examination. But the accusers were the Jews, saying that 
He claimed Kingship. But how could it be that the Jewish 
ecclesiastical authorities should complain of one of their 
own nation trying to emancipate them from the Roman 
yoke? Pilate knew how the Jews would have thrown off 
that yoke at any cost and welcomed any man who would 
lead a movement against the pagan oppressors. So the 
accusers were unwittingly the witnesses of His innocence. 
Of course, Pilate had never heard a word that the man who 
stood before him accused by the Jews had any desire what- 
ever to lead a revolt against his Roman government and 
to set Himself up as king. And Pilate was not slow to see 
the point of the accused. His answer, “Am I a Jew?” 
shows that. He acknowledged that the accusation came 


350 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


from the Jews and therefore was a false accusation. With 
this answer he also voiced the fact that he, the Roman gover- 
nor, despised the Jew. Many of the Roman authors and 
historians like Horace, Juvenal, Suetonius, Tacitus and 
Pliny, speak contemptuously of the Jews. We can imagine 
the sneering face of Pilate, when he spoke these words, as 
if he had been insulted. Then he added the truth, “thine 
own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto 
me. What hast thou done?’ With this sentence he shows 
that the Jews were the accusers and that he had no use for 
their charge as to his sedition. Then he appealed to the 
prisoner to tell him what He had done. 

The first question Pilate had asked: “Art Thou the King 
of the Jews?” our Lord now takes up in His answer. “‘My 
kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this 
world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be 
delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from 
hence.”? As Pilate was honestly perplexed He answered 
his question. Before Caiaphas and Herod He was silent. 
Later also He did not answer Pilate. 

His answer has puzzled a good many. What did our 
Lord mean? In the mind of the pagan official the thought 
was uppermost as to the kingdom which the Lord would 
claim to originate and to control. ‘The kingdoms which are 
of the world are established by human power, defended 
by the world’s arms, and the world’s money upholds them. 
“My kingdom is not of such a nature. When my kingdom 
comes,” He wants to impress upon the mind of Pilate, “‘it is 
not established by the world.”” And so it will be when He 
returns as King and receives the kingdom, when all the king- 
doms of this world will become His kingdom. It will come 
from above; not the world will give to Him the kingdom, 
but He will receive the kingdom from the hands of God 
His Father. If His kingdom were an earthly, worldly 
kingdom, such as the Roman empire, His servants would 
fight and prevent His condemnation. 

The little word ‘‘now’’ is here of immense significance. 
“But now is My kingdom not from hence.”” The Jews had 
rejected Him. ‘The promised and offered kingdom could 
not come. ‘Now My kingdom in temporal power and glory 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 351 


cannot come; it will come later but now the time is not. 
My rule is now of a different nature. In this dispensation 
I shall not have the earthly Kingdom to which I am entitled.” 

It seems the Governor was unable to grasp this answer. 
He seemed to be convinced that the Lord Jesus was not a 
political offender. This much Pilate had understood, that 
the Lord spoke of a kingdom which is now not of the world. 
If He has any kind of a kingdom, then He must be a king. 
That is why he asked next ‘‘Art Thou a king then?” 

Jesus answered: ““Thou sayest that Iam a king. To this 
end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, 
that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that 
is of the truth heareth my voice.” The Lord bears witness 
here to the fact of His Kingship. Heis a King. The original 
is best rendered, ““Thou sayest, for I am a King.” He gave 
Pilate to understand that He had not come into the world 
to build up a great kingdom by physical force, as is the 
case in a worldly kingdom. He came for a higher purpose. 
He came as a witness to the Truth, yea He Himself is the 
Truth. Three great facts are to be considered in this good 
witness which our Lord gave before Pilate (1 Tim. vi:13): 
(1) The Lord Jesus Christ is a King. As such He came, be- 
cause He is according to the flesh the son of David, entitled 
to the throne of His father David. (2) The object of His 
incarnation was to testify to the Truth, to bear witness to 
it. His true humanity and His Deity are witnessed to by 
Himself. When He said, “for this end was I born” He 
states His true humanity, but when He declared “‘for this cause 
came [ into the world” it is not a vain, unmeaning repetition 
of His birth, but shows that He pre-existed and came from 
‘above. (3) They only hear Him (receive Him) who are of 
the Truth. The meaning is that those proceeding from the 
truth, who are born again by the power of the truth and the 
Spirit of truth, hear Him. 

Pilate had listened. But the words of the Lord had fallen 
on barren ground. He has no answer save the question 
“What is truth?’ Was it the question of an honest inquirer? 
Had his conscience been touched? Would he know more? 
Was he exercised in his soul? Such was not the case with 
the proud Roman. The man who said shortly before, with 


352 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


a sneer, “Am I a Jew?” would not inquire of an accused 
Jewish prisoner what the truth is and thus show willingness 
to be taught by him. If the question had come from him as 
a seeker for the truth the incident would not have ended 
so abruptly. The Lord would have had something to say 
to the inquiring soul. It was a sneering word, this inter- 
jection, “What is truth?’* He turned suddenly around. 
He went out to face the murderous mob. He told them, 
“T find in Him no fault at all.”’ What a statement! The 
judge who would sign ere long His death warrant must 
publicly declare that there is no fault in Him. He was 
found without spot and blemish as the sacrificial Lamb. 
Then the politician comes out in all his lying character- 
istics. One only needs to watch certain politicians of our 
own day to discover that human nature has not changed 
a bit since that day. Pilate knows the man before him is 
innocent and guiltless and, therefore, he should be freed. 
But he is a politician and he must guard his own political 
interests. Supposing these Jews became offended? What 
will happen then? Perhaps a great disturbance, and the 
matter will be reported to Rome. It would not serve for 
his best interests. Our next chapter shows what finally 
induced him to pronounce the sentence (xix:12). Here he 
tries to wiggle out of the perplexing situation. They had 
a Passover custom to have released by the government a 
notable prisoner (Mark xv:8). How and when this custom 
originated we do not know. He takes refuge under this 
custom. There was another prisoner, a robber, by name of 
Barabbas. He was also a murderer (Acts ili:14). He was 


*This famous inquiry of Pilate is certainly not the inquiry of an 
honest seeker for truth (Chrysostom), for he does not even wait for 
an answer; nor, apparently, the disconsolate question of one who 
despaired of ever arriving at a standard of truth (Olshausen); for there 
is no evidence that he ever sought the truth, either in philosophy or 
religion; nor the scoffing question of one who believes that the truth 
can never be found (Alford), and whose modern type is the positivist, 
who believes that all creeds are false, and God, immortality and the 
soul are unknowable, for there is nothing to indicate that such prob- 
lems had any interest for him. It is rather asked, half in pity, half in 
contempt; the question of the practical man in the world, to whom 
this conception of a kingdom built on truth and maintained without 
an army and exchequer seemed but the baseless phantom of a harm- 
less religious enthusiast (Ellicott). These are the views of four of the 
leading commentators. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 353 


a lawless outcast. Pilate makes the proposition, “‘Will you 
that I release unto you the king of the Jews?’ Back comes 
the awful cry, ‘“Not this man—Barabbas!”’ What sin in all 
the blackness of it and sinfulness of it, is here revealed, along 
with Satan’s power. Oh! the horror of it, that man rejects 
the Holy One, the Just One. Such are our hearts. 

Bishop Ryle’s remarks on this incident are helpful and 
worth repeating: “Even here at this juncture we have an 
illustration of the great Christian doctrine of substitution. 
Barabbas, the real criminal, is acquitted and let go free. 
Jesus, innocent and guiltless, is condemned and sentenced 
to death. So it is in the salvation of our souls. We are all 
by nature as Barabbas, and deserve God’s wrath and con- 
demnation; yet he was accounted righteous and set free. 
The Lord Jesus Christ is perfectly innocent and yet He is 
counted a sinner, and put to death that we may live. Christ 
suffers, though guiltless, that we may be pardoned. We 
are pardoned, though guilty, because of what Christ has 
done for us. We are sinners, yet counted righteous. Christ 
is righteous, yet counted a sinner. Happy is that man who 
understands and believes this doctrine, who has laid hold 
on it by faith for the salvation of his own soul.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


Verses 1-5. The opening verses of this chapter bring 
us face to face with the sufferings of our blessed Lord and 
the shame which was heaped upon Him. We behold Him 
scourged, crowned with a cruel crown of thorns, mocked, 
dishonored, smitten and then made a public spectacle. For 
the heart of every child of God this is a deeply affecting 
scene. As we read it and mediate on it the eyes fill with 
tears, the very innermost soul is moved, and we praise Him 
that He suffered thus in our stead. 

What an awful sentence—‘“‘then Pilate therefore ot 
Jesus and scourged Him! ‘The scourging of criminals, 
beating them with rods, floggings with whips, have been 
in use among many nations, and are still used as penal 
measures among civilized nations. Cruel Rome outdid all 


354 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


others in the ancient world in torturing their helpless 
prisoners with the scourge. According to Josephus and 
other sources, Rome tormented malefactors in every pos- 
sible way before they were put to death. In many cases 
the scourging with a cruel, knotted scourge in which sharp 
pieces of iron and nails were embedded, continued till the 
bones were exposed and the victim died. When we think 
of the body of our Lord, the body which knew no sin, the 
body which was never racked by disease, that tender body, 
which He yielded in our behalf, we cannot even imagine 
how painful this scourging must have been to Him. Some 
have taught that Pilate did the scourging himself, because 
it says that he took Him and scourged Him. The statement 
means that he gave command that this be done. Rough, 
half-barbarian soldiers were His tormentors. As they hated 
the Jews, they were only too willing to treat Him with the 
utmost cruelty. The place where it was done was the com- 
mon hall (Matt. xxvii:27), a filthy guard room. The loving 
substitute of sinners suffered stripes in our behalf (Isa. 11:5; 
1 Peter 11:24).* 

After the scourging was over, which Pilate had com- 
manded as a compromise to save the Lord from the death 
penalty (Luke xxiii:16), the soldiers began their mocking 
torments. They had heard of the accusation and the claim 
that He is the King of the Jews. When they were through 
with their bloody work, and their victim stood bleeding 
before them, they began their cruel sport. One perhaps 
suggested a coronation. “Let us crown him king.’ “But 
what crown is He to wear?” “Make it a crown of thorns!” 
Thorns are very plentiful in Palestine, as the silent wit- 
nesses that God’s curse rests upon the land. It did not 
take long to gather thorns and to weave them into the form 
of a crown. ‘Then they pressed this instrument of torture 
upon His blessed brow, so that His precious blood streamed 
down His face. 

But little did these soldiers know what they were doing. 
They only had one thought, mocking the King of the Jews 

*The teachings of certain “divine healers” including the Pentecostal 
leader, Mrs. McPherson of Los Angeles, that our Lord was scourged 


for the physical healing of our bodies, is a miserable, unscriptural 
invention. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 355 


and venting their hatred in cruelty upon Him. They did 
not know that they were witnessing through their vicious 
action to the fact that their victim was bearing the curse 
of sin upon His head. Thorns are the emblems of the curse 
which rests uponcreation. Thorns came into existence 
after man’s fall (Gen. i11:18). Unknowingly the rude soldiers 
demonstrated with their crown of thorns that the Lord 
Jesus is the curse-bearer, 

What became of the crown of thorns? We do not mean 
what became of it after it had served its purpose. Hundreds 
of Romish churches in Italy, Spain and Mexico claim to 
possess pieces of the original crown. If we were to collect 
them we could form a thorn hedge a few miles long. What 
we mean is, was the crown of thorns at once removed when 
the mock scene had been ended? Or did this crown remain 
on His brow? We believe some of the master painters, who 
were godly men, had the right conception when they pic- 
tured Christ crucified with the crown of thorns still on His 
head. It was on the cross He bore the curse. 

They also put a mock royal robe upon Him. It was 
a purple robe, for purple was the color of Roman imperial- 
ism. In the examination in Luke xxii:11, we read that 
before Herod, He was likewise mocked by soldiers, who 
arrayed Him ina gorgeous robe, in which He was sent to 
Pilate. We do not know if it was the same garment which 
was now put upon Him. It was done in mockery; the vile 
soldiers showed their contempt. It was a Roman custom 
whenever a new emperor ascended the throne to greet him 
with the two words ‘‘ Ave Imperator” —Hail Emperor! This 
custom they imitated, mocking the Lord with their “Hail, 
King of the Jews.” 

From the other Gospels we learn that they bowed their 
knees in mock worship and also put a reed, as a mock 
sceptre, into His hands. Finally they spit upon Him. Oh: 
what awful hatred they manifested against the Holy and 
Spotless One. Man was shown what he is, and what he is 
capable of doing through the power of Satan, which was 
manifested in this scene, in both Jew and Gentile. They 
also smote Him with their hands. This was also probably 
done with a rod, so that He was bruised afresh—‘“‘bruised 


356 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
for our iniquities.””. One act of scorn and contempt followed 
the other. All man could do to Him was done under the 
energizing power of the prince of this world. 

The commentators of the early Church applied all these 
sufferings, and the shame connected with it, to us for whom 
He suffered. He wore the crown of thorns that we might 
wear a crown of glory. He was clothed with a robe of shame 
and contempt that we might wear the robe of righteousness 
and glory. He bore all the contempt so that we might wear 
all the glory. 

Then Pilate appeared again before the Jewish mob. He 
made an announcement: “Behold, I bring Him forth to 
you, that ye may know tliat I find no fault in Him.” For 
the second time the Roman Governor bears witness to the 
innocency of the Lord Jesus in the same words as he did 
before, “I find no fault in Him.” After this testimony had 
been given the Lord Jesus came forth wearing the crown of 
thorns and the purple robe. “And Pilate saith unto them, 
Behold the Man!’ Artists have painted this great scene, 
but no brush could depict Him as He was led forth from the 
filthy guard room, with His face marred, His back a mass of 
wounds, the blood trickling down His face as the crown of 
thorns remained on His head. If angels can weep, all heaven 
must have been in tears, while demons laughed and sneered. 

Behold the Man. Ecce Homo. Was it contempt or was 
it pity? Perhaps it was more the latter than the former. 
Pilate had watched the patient sufferer. 

Just as Isaiah had predicted, He opened not His mouth. 
While others, who were scourged and tortured cursed their 
tormentors and uttered fearful shrieks and groans, the Lamb 
of God was silent. Pilate knew He was guiltless. Thus 
pointing to Him, the thorn-crowned, bleeding Man of sor- 
rows, clothed in the mock robe, the Roman tried to awaken 
contempt and pity in the hearts of the clamoring crowd. 
Like the soldiers who were ignorant of their doings, so 
Pilate did not know what he was saying. ‘“‘Behold the Man,” 
This is the message which would be sounded all over the 
world—Behold the Man—Behold Him, the Lamb of God! 

Verses 6-11. Pilate, who evidently tried to avoid the 
condemnation of the Lord, because he knew He was inno- 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 357 


cent, had miserably failed. His attempt to produce con- 
tempt for such a miserable king had failed. Greater still 
was the failure to create pity. Here were hearts of stone, 
hearts which knew no pity, but under the influence of the 
murderer from the beginning, these hearts would not be 
content with anything less than His death. As soon as He 
appeared and they laid their eyes on Him, a mighty shout 
arose, led by the chief priests and their attendants—Crucify! 
Crucify! Crucify! Let it be noticed that the chief priests 
were the foremost in raising the cry for crucifixion. It 
is a painful fact that in every age, none have been such hard, 
cruel, unfeeling, and bloody-minded persecutors of God’s 
saints, as the “ministers of religion.” 

Then Pilate, in order to be relieved from the task of 
condemning an innocent person, said, ‘“Take ye Him and 
crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.” He seemed to be 
vexed and irritated. In his anger he said, ‘‘do it yourselves.” 
If they had taken him at his word he would have been un- 
able to permit it, for it was against the law for the Jews to 
put any criminal to death. For the third time he uttered 
the significant verdict, “I find no fault in Him.’ 

When thechief priests discovered that the political 
accusation had been a failure they appealed to their own 
law. ‘“‘We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, 
because He made himself the Son of God.’ The law which 
they had in mind is the law concerning a blasphemer (Lev. 
xxiv:16). The penalty demanded by the law was death by 
stoning. As we have learned in the study of the Gospel of 
John, three times before the Jews tried to stone Him, and 
each time when He claimed equality with God. They 
changed therefore the charge to blasphemy. It frightened 
the superstitious pagan when he heard that the man whom 
he had scourged, who had been tortured and mocked by his 
soldiers, might be after all a supernatural being. The 
warning his wife had sent to him may at this time have come 
back to his memory. If he was afraid before, he became the 
more afraid now. ‘Therefore he went back to the hall and 
spoke once more to the prisoner. 

Having heard from the chief priests that He claimed 
to be divine, Pilate asked the Lord, ‘‘Whence art thou?” 


358 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


The question suggests that he was eager to hear from His 
own lips who He is, from where He has come. Pilate knew 
undoubtedly Roman and Greek mythologies, that gods 
visited the earth; he was acquainted with these super- 
stitious beliefs. It may be that his question was put to 
ascertain whether the prisoner was not after all a super- 
natural being. Perhaps he hoped to hear something positive 
from the lips of the Lord Jesus which would enable him to 
dismiss the whole case and thus deliver Him from the hands 
of the Jews. 

But he was doomed to disappointment in this expecta- 
tion. Jesus gave him no answer. He stood silently before 
the man who was to be His judge. Why did our Lord keep 
His lips closed at this extremely critical moment? ‘Though 
our Lord was now delivered unto the Gentiles and had been 
scourged and mocked, He was still the omniscient Lord, 
who knows all things. He knew what was going on in the 
heart of Pilate; He knew the state of his soul. The Lord 
had given him the truth. He had rejected it. In spite of 
the conviction that the Lord Jesus was without fault, Pilate 
had Him cruelly scourged, and permitted the soldiers to 
crown Him with a crown of thorns, to spit in His face and 
to bruise Him. He deserved no further notice. He was 
unworthy of an answer. 

But there is another reason why our Lord was silent and 
refused to answer the question. Pilate was an instrument 
of Satan. He belonged to the seed of the serpent, and the 
old serpent whose chief aim has always been and still is to 
prevent God’s eternal purposes in redemption, would, have 
liked to use Pilate in keeping back the Lord Jesus from 
going to the cross, where Satan would be stripped of his 
power. He had tried this before. It was his aim on the 
mount of temptation, when he offered the kingdoms of the 
world to the Lord. When Peter said, after the Lord Jesus 
had announced His coming death, “Be it far from Thee, 
Lord” it was the same being who used Peter to keep the 
Lord from the cross. The Lord knew who stood behind 
Pilate and what would have happened had He answered 
Pilate’s question. Supposing He had told him, ‘‘I am the 
Lord, God is my Father; I am from above’’; and at the 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 359 


same time manifested some of His hidden glory, it would 
have probably impressed Pilate in such a way that he would 
have refused to go a step further and never permitted the 
crucifixion. The Lord knew His hour was come. He was 
subject to the Father’s will. It was His will that He should 
now be obedient unto death, the death of the cross. He 
knew the Father wanted Him to be silent and refuse the 
answer to Pilate’s question. 

It is plainly to be seen that Pilate was very much vexed 
at the silence of his prisoner. “‘Speakest Thou not to me? 
Knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee, and 
have power to release Thee?” And now the Lord answers 
him in a calm and dignified manner. He had spoken of 
power to crucify and power to release. He gives him to 
understand that he could have no power whatever except 
it were given to him from above, that is from God. It was 
the will of God which permitted the use of this power, for 
all that the Prophets had spoken concerning His sufferings 
and His sacrificial death was now to be accomplished. 
God’s will had to be done. But this did not leave Pilate 
guiltless. But the sin of the Jews, the sin of Caiaphas, of 
Judas, along with the other chief priests, was greater. They 
were not like the pagan Pilate, in ignorance as to who He 
is, for they knew the display of His divine power and grace 
in their midst, as well as the testimony of their own Scrip- 
tures concerning His person. ‘On account of this he that 
delivered Me up to thee hath greater sin.” 

Verses 12-18. Evidently a great impression had been 
made upon the Roman Governor. We do not know what 
meaning Pilate attached to the words which the prisoner 
before him had just spoken. It is evident, on account of 
what our Lord had said, Pilate sought to release Him. More 
than ever he seemed to be convinced of the innocency of 
the meek sufferer. We do not know what means he em- 
ployed when he sought to release Him. The Jews were 
aware of his attempt, ‘They knew of Pilate’s determination 
to release Him whom they hated. A great uproar followed 
Pilate’s weak effort. Behind the Jews stood Satan’s power 
and he inspired them to speak as they did. “If thou let 
this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend; whosoever maketh 


360 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


himself a king speaketh against Caesar.’’ The words the 
Jews spoke were sheer mockery. ‘The people who hated 
the Roman government and its emperor, suddenly make it 
appear that they wish to defend the Caesar in Rome and 
stand up for his rights, in order that He who is of their 
own race might be condemned to death. What hypocrisy! 
And Pilate now fully manifests his abominable character. 

Who was Pilate? It is supposed that he was a freedman. 
About the year 26 A. D. he had succeeded Valerius Gratus 
as procurator of Judea and Samaria. ‘This position he held 
for ten years. Josephus records the fact that he hated the 
whole Jewish race. He also was tyrannical toward the 
Samaritans. They entered a complaint against him and 
he had to go to Rome to defend himself. Before he arrived, 
Tiberius Caesar, whom he feared, had died. According to 
the historian Eusebius Pilate committed suicide. 

Pilate knew that the Lord Jesus was innocent. He had 
made a number of times a public declaration to this effect. 
“I find no fault in Him” was the verdict of the Roman 
judge. Finally this conviction had become so strong that 
he sought to release Him. ‘Then came the threatening cry 
of the Jewish mob. His mind must have worked fast. He 
knew that the Roman imperator whom he served, Tiberius 
Caesar, was a very suspicious monarch. As Tacitus and 
Suetonius, the Roman historians, record Tiberius feared con- 
stantly a revolt against him, and any suspicious character 
among his appointed officers was dealt with by him with 
utmost cruelty. Pilate also knew the maliciousness of the 
Jews, that they would report the case to Rome; he knew 
they would use it as an evidence that he is no friend of 
Tiberius in permitting a conspirator to plot against the 
government. He realized that Tiberius would be displeased, 
and that in all probability if the report reached Rome it 
would cost him his position, if not his life. Perhaps he 
glanced once over at the prisoner before him and then he 
trampled upon his conscience and his convictions and 
fell in line with the Jewish murderers. 

He did not speak a word. Jesus is brought forth while he 
took his place upon the judgment seat, called in Hebrew, 
Gabbatha. The judgment seat consisted in an elevated 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 361 


platform in the open air. The pavement mentioned was a 
tessellated or mosaic square upon which the judgment seat, 
the Bema, stood. The word Gabbatha means a raised 
place. What a solemn moment it was! The Son of God, 
the Lord of glory stands bound, crowned with the crown 
of thorns, His blessed visage marred and bleeding before 
Pontius Pilate. A hush of satisfaction must have come 
upon the Jewish mob of priests, scribes and elders as 
they realized that the moment had come when their satanic 
plottings were to be crowned with success. Angels looked 
on while demons sneered. 

It was the preparation of the Passover. This means that 
the day was set apart for the preparation of the Passover 
Sabbath. John therefore marks very accurately and pre- 
cisely the day of crucifixion. It was the day preceding the 
Passover Sabbath, also called the great Sabbath. And He 
who is about to be condemned is the true Passover Lamb. 
It was about the sixth hour. If we read the account of 
Mark we find that he states it was the third hour (Mark 
XVi25); 

This presents a difficulty and the fact that Mark men- 
tions the third hour and John the sixth hour has been held 
up by critics, modernists and similar infidels, as a glaring 
contradiction. We acknowledge the difficulty but not the 
contradiction. Many attempts have been made to solve 
this problem. It has also been pointed out that five manu- 
scripts, called uncials, and four cursives read in the original 
or in corrections “the third hour.” However, the most 
ancient manuscripts read the sixth hour. The most satis- 
factory solution is that Mark reckons according to Jewish 
time and John employs the Roman mode of reckoning, 
which was from midnight to noon, as we do. That this 
must be correct may also be adduced from the fact that 
Pilate’s wife sent a message in which she spoke of suffering 
much “to-day in a dream because of Him”? (Matth. xxvii:19). 
Furthermore, we must also notice that John says “about 
the sixth hour’; it was about that time when the cry to 
crucify Him was raised, while Mark gives the third hour as 
the actual time of the crucifixion itself. John undoubtedly 


362 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


uses in his Gospel record the reckoning of time according to 
the civil day. (See chapters 1:39; iv:6, 52.) 

It was about the sixth hour when Pontius Pilate opened 
his lips again, saying, “Behold your King!’ Why did he 
speak thus again, when in his heart he had fully decided to 
put Him to death? Wasit the final, feeble attempt to have 
Him released, or was it mockery? We believe it was the 
latter. It was sarcasm addressed to the Jews whom he 
despised so much. Look at Him! This thorn-crowned 
figure, torn and bleeding, helpless and harmless—this is 
your king! His mockery and sarcasm was followed by a 
tremendous outburst. ‘‘Away with Him! Away with Him! 
Crucify Him!’ Poor blinded mob headed by their own 
religious hierarchy! If they had but known their own 
Scriptures they would have seen that they were fulfilling 
what their prophets had predicted (Isaiah xlix:7; liii:2). 

We can see the sneer on Pilate’s lip as he said in his final 
word, “Shall I crucify your king?’ Then the voices of the 
chief priests were heard above the rest of the murderous 
rabble, “We have no king but Caesar!’ And so to-day the 
leaders of the Christ-rejecting rabble are the alleged and 
accredited preachers and teachers in Christendom, who deny 
the Master who bought them. Fatal word it was, “We 
have no king but Caesar!” With this brief sentence they 
renounced the faith of their fathers and the truth God had 
given to them, and even God Himself. Their fathers, when 
they asked for a king in the days of Samuel, had rejected 
God from being their King. After the mad king had proven 
a failure God gave to the nation David, the man after His 
own heart. In him and his kingdom, as well as in Solomon 
his son, God foreshadowed the true King and His kingdom. 
That promised King was to come from the loins of David, 
David’s son and David’s Lord. Prophet after prophet 
spoke of that King and the glories of His kingdom. Genera- 
tions after generations waited for Him to come. When the 
fullness of time had come He came, Jesus Christ, the son 
of David, the son of Abraham (Matth. i:1). He came as 
King, offered the promised kingdom to Israel, manifested 
His power as King and witnessed to His kingship. And now 
the chief priests declare with one utterance that the only 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 363 


king they know of is the Gentile ruler in Rome. It was the 
complete evidence or their apostate condition. Their decla- 
ration has come upon their own heads, for ever since the 
Gentile world power has domineered over them and the 
nation has had her well deserved history of blood, tears 
and sorrow as Jerusalem has been trodden down by the 
Gentiles. Nor will there be a change till the day arrives 
when the rejected King returns and a believing remnant 
welcomes Him as the Redeemer-King. 

Perhaps it was at this point that Pilate washed his hands 
in their presence saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this 
just person, see ye to it” (Matth. xxvii:24). And their 
answer was, “His blood be upon us and on our children.” 

Pilate then delivered Him to be crucified. Luke tells us 
that Pilate pronounced the death sentence. “Pilate gave 
sentence that it should be as they required” (Luke xxiii:24). 
He delivered Him to their will and the willing victim was 
led away, led as a lamb to the slaughter and never opening 
His mouth, as Isaiah had predicted over 700 years before. 

It was the custom of that day that condemned criminals 
had to carry the instrument of torture and of death. And 
so our Lord bore His cross. What kind of a cross was it? 
We know that four times the cross is spoken of in the New 
Testament as a tree (Acts v:30, x:39, xiii:29; 1 Peter 11:24). 
Then in Gal. i11:13 it 1s also stated, “Cursed is every one 
that hangeth on a tree.’ We know from classical literature 
that often a forked tree was used instead of a manufactured 
cross. ‘To this must be added the meaning of the Latin for 
cross-bearer, which literally means “‘forked-tree bearer.” 
It seems there is some ground for the view that it was a 
forked tree making a cross. On the other hand the universal 
tradition of the Church and art of the earliest day is that it 
was a piece of wood with a transverse piece fixed across it. 
There is no discrepancy between John and the Synoptics. 
The latter tell us that Simon the Cyrenian was compelled 
to bear it instead of the Lord. The cross was laid upon 
Him and He probably dragged it along for some distance 
till the executioners, the rough Roman soldiers feared that 
He might break down and succumb under the burden. 
We do not say that He might have succumbed, but that the 


364 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


soldiers probably feared it and therefore pressed the Cyrenian 
into service. 

That our Lord bore the cross fulfills another type. Abra- 
ham put the wood for the burnt-offering upon the back of 
Isaac. The Hebrew commentary Bereshith rabba says that 
Abraham laid the wood upon Isaac “‘in the form of a cross.” 
He was led forth outside of the city to a place called Gol- 
gotha. Golgotha means the same as the Latin Calvaria, 
the place of a skull. This place cannot be located, the only 
thing we know is that it was without the gate, as Paul writes 
in the Hebrew epistle “Jesus suffered without the gate.” 
The sin-offering on the Day of Atonement was to be carried 
“without the camp” (Lev. xvi:27). Why the place was called 
“fa skull’ we do not know, for a certainty. Many con- 
jectures have been made. In many hymns and poems Cal- 
vary is spoken of as a hill, or a mountain. 

There is a green hill far away 
Without the city wall, 


Where the dear Lord was crucified 
And died to save us all. 


If it was “a green hill’ it certainly was not far away. But 
where in Scripture do we find it stated that Golgotha was a 
hill or a mountain? There is not a single passage which 
would warrant such a belief. Later in this chapter we read 
that in the place where He was crucified there was a garden 
(verse 41). It was a garden where Adam fell and where the 
first announcement of redemption was made. In a garden 
the last Adam met the penalty and fulfilled the promise. 

It is noteworthy that no inspired pen enters into a de- 
tailed description of the crucifixion itself. ‘““They crucified 
Him there.’ It was indescribable. For this reason we do 
not attempt, as others have done, to draw upon the imagina- 
tion and picture the awful scene when the Lamb of God 
was. nailed to that cross of shame, a suffering which we 
cannot fully understand. John also mentions that others 
were crucified with Him; He in the midst. Another pro- 
phetic utterance is seen fulfilled, “He was numbered with 
the transgressors” (Isa. liii:12). What happened to these 
malefactors John does not record as the other three Gospels 
do. The one to the right turned to Him in the last moments 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 365 


of his sinful life and believing on Him was saved; the other 
to the left died in his sins, an unrepenting sinner, and was lost. 

Verses 19-22. It was customary to bear before the 
criminal led away to the place of execution an inscription 
which designated his crime; this was subsequently nailed 
to the cross, as a warning to others. Pilate put over the 
cross of our Lord the inscription, “Jesus of Nazareth the 
King of the Jews.” It was written in three languages, in 
Latin (the political court language); in Greek (the language 
of the Gentiles) and in Hebrew, rather Aramaic (the sacred 
religious language). As it was near the city many Jews 
who passed by, probably along the highway, read it. Here 
again, Pilate acted without knowing what he did. He 
meant it as an insult to the Jews. They were not slow to 
recognize this, and therefore the chief priests tried to have 
it changed. But the inscription showed to all who passed 
by that Jesus really was hanging on that cross, that He was 
not released, but suffered on the cross, and, furthermore, the 
inscription made it clear that He is the King of the Jews, 
the Son of David, the Messiah. Being in the three great 
languages of the times, Jews and Gentiles read it, and as 
they passed on they spread the news that one by name of 
Jesus, the King of the Jews, had been crucified at the time 
of the Passover. 

But the inscription produced two results apart from the 
anger of the chief priests who wanted to have it written in 
a different way. We read in Mark’s Gospel, “The chief 
priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, 
He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let Christ the 
King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may 
see and believe. And they that were crucified with Him 
reviled Him.” The inscription produced vile mockery. 
But it produced a most blessed fruit. It seems to us that 
the thief at His right hand must have glanced at that in- 
scription. Over the crosses of the two malefactors were 
written the shameful record of their crimes—thieves and 
murderers. Over His cross, the Man in the middle, no crime 
was written, but only the terse sentence, “‘Jesus of Nazareth 
the King of the Jews.’ And the thief must have read it, 
and reading, he believed that He is the King. He rebuked 


366 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


his companion in sin. He declared, because he believed, 
that the Lord Jesus Christ had done nothing amiss. Then 
he turned to Him with that great and wonderful request, 
“Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy king- 
dom.” And the suffering Lord answered him and his faith 
with the blessed assurance, “Verily I say unto thee, today 
thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” In all probability the 
inscription of Pilate written in ignorance and out of spite 
helped to save the soul of the dying thief. 

The final word of Pilate is, ““What I have written, I have 
written.” Well commented Augustinus on this sentence, 
saying, “If a man like Pilate can say, what I have written 
I have written, and will not alter it, can we think that God 
doth write any in His book and blot it out again?” 

Verses 23-24. ‘The account which John gives of this in- 
cident is more complete than the account in the synoptic 
Gospels. (See Matt. xxvii:35; Mark xv:24; Luke xxiii: 
34). After the bloody work of crucifixion had been done 
the four soldiers (called a quaternion) detailed to do this 
work remained. It seems it was a Roman custom, as it is 
still in some countries, that the executioners received the 
clothing of the condemned. They divided therefore the 
garments of our Lord into four parts, so that each soldier 
received a share. What these garments were we do not need 
to specualte about, for it is of little interest. But one garment 
is specially mentioned in the record, the seamless coat woven 
from the top throughout. In the eyes of the soldiers it must 
have had some value. It was probably the outer garment, 
and it is possible that the soldiers knew that people had 
touched the hem of this garment and had been healed. If 
they knew of this it may have increased the value of the coat 
in their eyes. The coat was probably a gift of some of the 
women who ministered unto Him (Luke viii:1-3). They 
agreed not to tear this seamless coat into four parts but to 
gamble for it. Dice were extensively used among the old 
Romans, as they are still used for the same purpose. 

This incident shows the awful hard-heartedness of man, 
the vile depths into which sin has plunged him. A little 
distance away stood the cultured, the religious scribes and 
priests sneering, mocking and insulting the crucified One. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 367 


Their hearts just as vile and wicked as the hearts of the four 
soldiers. ‘These gambled right beneath the cross. They sat 
down cooly under a dying man to wrangle for His garment, 
and arbitrate their avaricious differences by casting dice for 
His tunic, with hands spotted with spattered blood, warm 
and yet undried upon them. If they but had known that 
that precious blood flowing from the veins of the crucified 
Lord was shed in their own behalf! What became of the 
seamless garment? No one knows. In ‘Treves dark, 
heathen, lying Rome exhibits the so-called ‘‘holy coat,” 
claiming to be the seamless robe of our Lord. It is one of the 
scandalous deceptions of the mother of harlots and the mother 
of ignorance. No sane person will believe such humbuggery 
practiced for filthy lucre’s sake. 

But all was done in fulfillment of prophecy. A thousand 
years before the Holy Spirit witnessed in the xxii Psalm as 
to this incident. It is one of the many evidences of the 
marvelous and minute fulfillment of prophecy. The very 
minuteness of it bears witness to the accurate reality of 
prophecy. 

Verses 25-27. ‘This incident of His loved ones standing 
by the cross is not recorded by the other Gospels. It is a 
most blessed scene. Mary the mother of Jesus, his mother’s 
sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene had 
taken their places by the cross, surrounded by the taunting 
Jews and the gambling soldiers, to show to the very last their 
unswerving affection for Him. When we remember that 
our Lord was a condemned criminal, peculiarly hated by the 
chief priests, executed by Roman soldiers, the faithfulness 
and courage of these holy women can never be sufficiently 
admired. As long as the world stands they supply a glorious 
proof of what grace can do for the weak, and of the strength 
that love to Christ can supply. When all men but one for- 
sook our Lord, more than one woman boldly confessed Him. 
Women, in short, were the last at the cross and the first at 
the tomb.* 

Mary the mother of our Lord is mentioned the only time 
here in the passion of our Lord. Rome constantly speaks of 


*Expository thoughts on John. 


368 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


her as the “Virgin Mary,” a title which is not used in Scrip- 
ture, but she is always called, the mother of our Lord. Only 
once more is she mentioned in Scripture, in the first chapter 
of Acts. It is evident that the Holy Spirit anticipated the 
idolatry which apostate Rome would practice with her person 
and therefore He has but little to say about her person. She 
probably had come from Galilee to attend the annual Pass- 
over feast and may have been also a witness of other phases 
of the suffering of her virgin-born Son. She was, of course, 
no longer young, as she is so frequently pictured by artists, 
but must have been close to fifty years. What she must 
have suffered when she looked up and saw Him to whom she 
had given birth, hanging in agony on that cross of shame can 
hardly be imagined. Old Simeon’s prediction was then ful- 
filled. ‘A sword shall pierce through thine own soul also” 
(Luke 11:35). 

A still more touching scene follows. John the writer of 
this Gospel stood there also. In true humility he mentions 
himself last and then not by name, but as elsewhere in this 
Gospel, as the disciple whom Jesus loved. While our Lord 
suffered as the sacrificial Lamb, He manifested perfect human 
affection and sympathy. As He looked upon the little 
group, so faithfully sharing His rejection also, He knew what 
was going on in the mother heart. His mighty love and 
sympathy was not altered by His intense physical suffering. 
He had prayed a little while before, ‘‘Father, forgive them for 
they know not what they do.”’ He spoke to the dying thief 
words of love and assurance. And He now addressed His 
suffering mother. ‘Translated literally it is: “Woman! 
Look! Thy Son!” and to John “Look! Thy mother!” In 
these words He made gracious provision for His mother. 
This certainly is sufficient evidence that Joseph, the husband 
of Mary had died and also that she had no one else to take 
care ofher. ‘The Lord therefore commended her to the care 
of the beloved disciple. It is also highly significant that 
our Lord did not address her as ‘‘Mother,” but spoke to her in 
the same term He had used at the marriage supper of Cana, 
“Woman.” Bishop Ryle remarks on this: ‘‘I cannot help 
thinking that, even at this awful moment, He would remind 
her that she must never suffer herself or others to presume on 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 369 


the relationship between her and Him, or claim any super- 
natural honor on the ground of being His mother. Hence- 
forth she must daily remember, that first aim must be to live 
the life of faith as a believing woman, like all other Christian 
women. Her blessedness did not consist in being related to 
Christ according to the flesh, but in believing and keeping 
Christ’s word. I firmly believe that, even on the cross, Jesus 
foresaw the future heresy of ‘Mary-worship.’”? A German 
commentator says: “Our Lord’s design was not to provide 
for John, but to provide for His mother’’; while Dean Alford 
observed: ““The Romanist idea that the Lord commended 
all His disciples, as represented by John, to the patronage of 
His mother, is simply absurd.” 

And John obeyed at once and ever after he took care of 
Mary, the mother of our Lord. Where John lived, how long 
Mary lived, are questions which cannot be answered, though 
many traditions are about, but they are unreliable. 

Verses 28-30. John does not say anything about the 
three hours of darkness and the momentous utterance which 
came from our Saviour’s lips: ““My God, my God, why hast 
Thou forsaken Me?’ This is passed over by John. Nor is 
any mention made of the rending of the veil, the earthquake, 
the centurion’s confession. ‘These omissions have often been 
pointed out by critics as demonstrating a human and fallible 
authorship. In reality they are evidences of verbal in- 
spiration, for the Gospel of John shows our Lord in His es- 
sential Deity and as the Eternal Life. As the Son of God, the 
maker of all things in fellowship with the Father. His 
sacrificial death is set forth in the fourth Gospel. ‘The omis- 
sions are for a very good purpose. But we shall point out 
more of that as we meditate on this section. 

What John reports now must have followed the three hours 
of darkness. ‘That is immediately after He had commended 
His mother to the care of the beloved disciple, the darkness, 
the mysterious darkness enshrouded the cross. Out of that 
darkness came but one utterance, so awfully deep that no 
saint has ever sounded its depths. 

What a majestic statement it is which we find in verse 28! 
“After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now ac- 
complished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I 


370 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


thirst.”” All through His suffering He was perfectly con- 
scious, and He knew all He had to suffer beforehand and all 
which was to be accomplished by His suffering and death. 
He knew the betrayal of Judas, His arrest in the garden, the 
trial, the scourging, the crown of thorns, the mockery, the 
shame and physical suffering connected with the cross. He 
knew that in the three hours of darkness He would be made 
sin and drink the cup of judgment in the place of guilty and 
lost sinners. And now, the three hours passed. He knew all 
things were accomplished. One Scripture He knew was still 
unfulfilled. It is written in Psalm lxix:21 “* * * in my 
thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.” He knew this had 
also to be accomplished. ~In Matthew xxvii:34 we read that 
they offered Him vinegar and gall, which He refused. It 
was before they drove the nails through His blessed hands and 
feet. As it was a stimulant to deaden pain He refused to 
drink it. But now He suffered intense thirst. It was pro- 
phetically described a thousand years before by David’s in- 
spired pen. “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, 
and my tongue cleaveth to My jaws, and Thou hast brought 
Me into the dust of death” (Psalm xxii:15). The two little 
words “J thirst” tell us of the physical agony through which 
He passed. ‘This simple statement shows what He must have 
suffered. His suffering was not miraculously overcome, but 
He suffered really and in a manner which was indescribable. 
A commentator says: ‘“The torments of hell are represented 
by a violent thirst, in the complaint of the rich man who 
begged for a drop of water to cool his tongue. ‘To that ever- 
lasting thirst we had all been condemned, if Christ had not 
suffered on the cross, and said ‘I thirst.’”’ He suffered thirst 
that we might thirst no more but drink the water of life 
freely. And He spoke thus expressing His intense agony, 
that at the same time the Scripture might be fulfilled. A 
soldier, perhaps moved with pity, filled a sponge with vinegar, 
which was in a vessel nearby, put it on hyssop and reaching 
up put it to His mouth. Here too is a deep allusion to the 
sacrificial work of the divine sufferer. Hyssop was used in 
sprinkling the door posts with blood in the Passover night. 
It was also used in sprinkling with blood and water the book 
of the law, and the people (Heb. x:19). So small a thing as 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 371 


hyssop was not overlooked in the fulfillment of His redemp- 
tion work, 

Immediately after He had received the vinegar He said: 
“It is finished!” and He bowed His head and delivered up 
His Spirit. The synoptic Gospels do not record this majestic, 
unfathomable utterance. Matthew writes: “Jesus, when He 
had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the Spirit” 
(Matt. xxvii:50). Mark records the same. Luke states: 
‘‘When Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, 
into Thy hands I commend My Spirit, and having said thus 
He gave up the Spirit” (Luke xxiii:46). From the testi- 
mony of the synoptic Gospels we learn that our Lord must 
have uttered the word which John records, “It is finished!’ 
with a loud voice. In the Greek it is one word— Tetelstai. 
As He uttered this one word with a loud voice it means a 
shout of triumph and of victory. With every phase of His 
redemption work a shout is connected. As the risen One, 
He greeted His disciples with a shout of Joy—All hail! which 
means literally ‘Rejoice!’ He went up with a shout, and 
some day He is coming back witha shout (1 Thess. iv:16-18). 

But who can tell what this one word “It is finished!” 
means? It is as glorious as it is inexhaustible and unsearch- 
able. Never before and never after was spoken such a 
marvelous word, which means so much. No Saint is able to 
measure the depths of this triumphant shout. It means 
that His great sacrificial work, the sin-bearing, was now 
finished. All that needed to be done to satisfy the right- 
eousness of God and to vindicate His holiness was finished; 
peace was now made in the blood of His cross; all that God 
in His eternal counsel had purposed was finished; prophecies 
and types relating to His matchless atoning work were finish- 
ed. Yea, all was finished to reach down to man in his deepest 
degradation and to save him to the uttermost, so that the 
lost, the guilty, the hell-deserving sinner becomes, trusting in 
Him, a child of God and an heir of glory. All is finished to 
put on the side of the believer every spiritual blessing which 
an infinite God is able to bestow. But all these statements 
we have made are but the A. B. C. of the meaning of this 
great utterance of the Lamb of God. 

At the close of the Twenty-second Psalm, the Psalm which 


372 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


tells out so fully His suffering and His glory, we find a word 
which is equivalent to the exclamation “It is finished!’ 
There we read “That He hath done.”’ If we ask what has 
He done or finished we find an answer in the preceding verses. 
There we read that Israel will yet accept Him and the ends 
of the world shall turn to the Lord. All this was done by 
Him on the cross. ‘Twice in Revelation we find the same 
expression. In chapter xvi:17 there is heard a great voice 
out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “‘It is 
done.”” The seventh angel poured out the vial; the com- 
plete end of man’s day has come and the day of the Lord 
with millennial blessing and glory is now ushered in. The 
foundation for all these blessings was laid by Him in His 
finished work on the cross. One more we read the same 
statement in Revelation. “‘And He that sat upon the throne 
said, Behold I make all things new. And He said unto me, 
Write, for these words are true and faithful. And He said 
unto me, It is done. J am Alpha and Omega, the beginning 
and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the 
fountain of the water of life freely”? (Rev. xxi:5-6). 

And after the triumphant ‘‘ Tetelstar”—‘“‘It is finished,” 
He bowed His blessed thorn-crowned head and delivered 
up His spirit. In Luke’s Gospel we read that our Lord said: 
“Father, into Thy hands ] commend my spirit.” John does 
not record this for He writes of Him as the Son of God and 
as such, one with the Father, unforsaken by the Father 
(Chapter xvi:32) He did not need to commend Himself to 
the Father. The expression ‘He delivered up His spirit’ 
is nowhere else used in the Bible of a dying person. We die 
because we cannot help it, but His death was a voluntary 
action. He delivered up His spirit by His own free will. 

The remarks on this verse by Augustinus of the fourth 
century are most appropriate. “Not against His will did the 
Saviour’s spirit leave the flesh, but because He would, and 
when He would, and how He would. Who is there that even 
can go to sleep when he will, as Jesus did when He would? 
Who thus puts off his clothes, when he will, as Jesus un- 
clothed Himself when He would? Who goes thus out of 
doors when he will, as Jesus, when He would, went out of 
this world?” 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN SPS 


‘It is finished!” sinners, hear it, 

Tis the dying victor’s cry; 
“Tt is finished!” angels, bear it, 

Bear the joyful truth on high: 
“Tt is finished!’ 

Tell it through the earth and sky! 


Hear the Lord Himself declaring 
All performed He came to do; 
Sinners, in yourselves despairing, 

This is joyful news to you; 
Jesus speaks it, 
His are faithful words and true. 


“Tt is finished!” all is over, 

Yes, the cup of wrath is drained, 
Such the truth these words discover, 
Thus the victory was obtained— 

*Tis a victory 
None but Jesus could have gained.” 


Verses 31-37. What is meant by “the preparation’’? 
It means the day preceding the Passover Sabbath. It was 
considered a high day, or, better rendered, a great day. 
This seems to be conclusive evidence that the death of our 
Lord took place on Friday. Some in order to get the three 
days and three nights have tried to fix the day of the death 
of our Lord on Wednesday, and others on Thursday. ‘The 
Jewish mode of reckoning explains the apparent difficulty. 
On account of the approaching great Sabbath they were 
particular that the law of Moses should not be broken. It 
is written in Deut. xxi:23 concerning the man who is put 
to death and is hanged onatree: ‘‘His body shall not remain 
all night upon the tree.”? The miserable hypocrites had 
no scruples in murdering an innocent man, but they were 
scrupulous about letting the dead man hang on the cross 
over night. ‘They evidently feared that the bodies of the 
three criminals might hang over the Sabbath on the crosses. 
They came therefore to Pilate and requested him that their 
legs might be broken and that all three be taken away. 
Did they fear anything else? The place of crucifixion was 
near the wall of the city and near the temple. It was along 
the highway leading into the city on which hundreds entered 
the city. Did they fear that the sight of the One in the 
middle with His bowed, thorn-crowned head, and the in- 
scription above—‘“‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” 
might arouse a mighty sentiment against them from the 


374 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


many who had followed Him and had been benefited by 
His works of mercy? 

The breaking of the legs of crucified criminals was a 
Roman custom to hasten death. They did not hesitate to 
urge the Roman heathen to resort to this barbarous custom 
and to add additional suffering to the dying men. They 
evidently did not know that the Lord Jesus had bowed His 
head and that His body had died. But what would have 
happened if they had not made the request? As far as we 
know all three bodies would have remained on the crosses 
over the Sabbath and the prediction that He would rise 
again on the third day would have remained unfulfilled. 
Furthermore, if the Jews had not made the request to break 
the legs of them, the prediction which is quoted from the 
Psalms would have had no meaning. The very hatred and 
malignity of these Jewish leaders, anxious to dispose of 
the body of the hated One, was instrumental in accomplishing 
the purpose of God and the fulfillment of His own Word. 
How true it is, as someone has said, the wickedest enemies 
of God are only axes, saws and hammers in His hands, and 
are ignorantly His instruments for doing His work in the 
world. 

Then the soldiers began their ghastly work. Two of 
them started in with the two thieves and broke their legs, 
which was probably done with a heavy club of some kind. 
Then the thief who had turned to the Lord passed away 
and found the blessed meaning of the promise of the Lord: 
“To-day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.” ‘The Lord 
who had delivered up His spirit had gone before him. The 
other thief, impenitent to the last, also died and passed 
into the outer darkness. 

Then they turned to the cross in the middle. The bowed 
head, the closed eyes, the limp body, the blanched face, 
told the story. He had died. There was no need to break 
His legs. A soldier, at random, pierced His side. There 
is nc ancient source which even gives a hint that such a thing 
was ever done before. It was not a Roman custom to 
pierce the side of a dead criminal. The soldier did not 
follow the command given to him to break the legs of the 
three to hasten their death; he had no authority to take 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 375 


the spear and pierce His side. Even he was divinely guided 
in doing this. The Roman government had not authorized 
the act, but God did, so that the most conclusive evidence 
of the death of Christ might be given and that Scripture 
also might be fulfilled. 

The blood and water coming from the pierced side was 
in the first place an evidence that He was dead. ‘The spear 
pierced the very vitals of the body, the pericardium; if He 
had not been dead this spear thrust would have accomplished 
it. So God took care that the lie of rationalism, trying to 
disprove His physical resurrection by saying, He had not 
actually died, should have no weight with any sensible 
being. But it was more than an evidence that Christ had 
died. The flow of blood and water out of His side is one 
of the miracles of the cross; it was a supernatural event. 
From a dead man no blood flows forth; the flow of blood 
was a special manifestation of God’s power. ‘The Apostle 
John bears witness to it that he saw it with his own eyes. 
In his first epistle he also alludes to it. ‘“This is He that 
came through water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in the 
power of water only, but in the power of water and blood. 
And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit 
is truth” (Chapter v:6). Very foolishly some expositors 
have applied this to baptism and the Lord’s supper, and 
others made the strange assertion that wine and water 
should be mixed at the Lord’s table. The blood stands 
always for atonement, the water for purification, for cleans- 
ing. This is the evident meaning of the miracle, to give 
an outward evidence of the meaning of His sacrificial death— 
justification and sanctification—typified by blood and water, 
and both are received by faith in the death of the Son of 
God. 


“Thy love, by man so sorely tried, 
Proved stronger than the grave; 
The very spear that pierced Thy side 

Drew forth the blood to save.” 

And all was in fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures. How 
marvelously God took care that nothing should be over- 
looked in His Word! These wonderful fulfillments of 
prophecy are one of the outstanding evidences of the super- 


naturalness of the Book. The soldier could not break the 


376 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


legs of the Lord Jesus, because He is the true Passover 
Lamb and no bone of the Passover lamb was to be broken 
(Exod. xii:46). The soldier had to pierce His blessed side 
not only to give sure evidence of His death and to show 
miraculously by the blood and water the spiritual results 
of His death, but to do it because Scripture demands it. 
It is written in Zechariah xii:10: ‘And they shall look 
upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn 
for Him, as one mourneth for his only son.” But let it 
be noticed, John avoids the word “at was fulfilled.” He 
did not use this term because the Scripture which predicts 
this was not fulfilled at that time, nor has it been fulfilled 
since then. It is true thousands upon thousands have 
looked to Him and believed on Him, and were saved. It 
is true 


“There is life in a look at the Crucified One, 
There is life at this moment for you.” 


But if-we examine the passage in Zechariah we learn that 
it will be fulfilled in the future, when the repentant remnant 
of Israel in the last days of this age turns to Him and when 
He comes again, then they will look upon Him whom 
they pierced. Thomas, the unbelieving disciple, who would 
not believe till he put his hand into His side, is a picture 
of the unbelieving Jew, who always wants to see first and 
then believe. When He comes the second time this Scrip- 
ture will be fulfilled and not before. 

Verses 38-42. The burial of His blessed body is next 
brought before us by John’s inspired pen. It was a custom 
to leave crucified criminals unburied. Often they were 
left hanging on the cross for the vultures to feed upon. His 
burial had also been predicted by the Spirit of God. Isaiah 
wrote (correctly translated) “His grave was appointed with 
the wicked, but with the rich man was His tomb” (liii:9). 
It means this—the Jews would have liked to have His 
body treated as if it were the body of a wicked man, but 
God stepped in, and He who had said that “His body should 
not see corruption,” the body which knew no sin, gave 
His beloved Son for a resting place the tomb of a rich man. 
Who Joseph of Arimathea was we learn from all four Gospels. 
He was a wealthy man (Matt. xxvii:51). He was an 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 377 


honorable counsellor who waited for the Kingdom of God 
(Mark xv:43). He was a good man and just and had not 
consented to the counsel and deed in condemning the 
Lord Jesus Christ (Luke xxiii:50). He was a secret disciple 
of the Lord. While in His life this noble man kept in 
the background, His death led him out to make a confession 
by his action. Being an influential man, probably well 
known to Pilate, he had no difficulty in getting the ready 
consent of the Roman official. We do not know why he 
acted so boldly. Many things might be conjectured. He 
may have been led to confess Him, when His own disciples 
had forsaken Him, on account of the startling events which 
took place in connection with the death of the Lord; or 
it may have been the power of God which enabled him to 
disregard all danger and ridicule and claim the body of 
Christ. However, it was an act of faith and confession. 
A commentator says: ‘When Christ was working wonders, 
and speaking as never man spake, all this moved not Joseph 
to come forth and show himself. But now, Christ being 
dead and in shame, he comes out. Whereunto do I ascribe 
this? I ascribe it to the power that comes from the death 
of Christ. ‘There was never a living man in the world that 
had such power as that dead body had. More mighty 
was His death than His life.” 

It is also a curious incident, perhaps more than that, 
that it was a ‘‘Joseph” who handled probably first the body 
of our Lord, as an infant, at the time of His birth in Beth- 
lehem, and that it was another “Joseph” who handled the 
lifeless body for burial. 

Nicodemus appears next on the scene. He is even of 
greater interest than Joseph of Arimathea. We read of him 
only in this Gospel. He came to the Lord Jesus by night, 
and heard the great truth concerning the kingdom of God 
(John iii). The next time he is mentioned is in chapter 
vii:10. He belonged to those in authority and when they 
met and were angry at the officers who returned without 
the hated One, whom they were commissioned to arrest, 
Nicodemus ventured a weak defense of the Lord. Each 
time, here and in chapter vii, the Spirit of God adds by way 
of identification “he that came to Jesus by night,” so that 


378 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


there might be no mistake that it was the same person. 
And now he comes bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, 
about one hundred pound weight. Did he know Joseph 
of Arimathea? Was Joseph’s action the reason that he 
also came out to confess Christ? Or was it the death of 
Christ? These questions are unanswerable. But we have 
always thought that Nicodemus must have been an onlooker 
when our Lord was crucified. He saw Him nailed to the 
cross and hanging there. As the teacher of Israel he knew 
the Scriptures and beheld how Scripture was being fulfilled. 
Perhaps then the memorable words the Lord had given to 
him that night came back to him. “As Moses lifted up 
the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be 
lifted up; that whosoever believeth on Him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life.” Perhaps that very moment 
he believed and was born again. And now a great Pharisee 
and ruler of the Jews, the teacher in Israel, comes out 
boldly to do honor to Him who, in the eyes of the law, had 
died a criminal. He comes to do honor to the body of the 
Lord Jesus. 

They took the body and wound it in linen cloth with 
spices, according to the manner of Jewish burial. The 
fine linen was provided by Joseph (Mark xv:46). This also 
shows conclusively that the body was dead. Strange it is 
that some think that the large amount of spices were used 
to keep back the corruption of the body of our Lord. No 
spices, no myrrh, no embalming process was needed for 
that. Corruption is in the world on account of sin. He 
had no sin, but gave His sinless body; therefore corruption 
of His body was impossible in fulfillment of the prophecy 
in Psalm xvi. 

From verse 41 we learn that in the place where He was 
crucified was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre 
which had never been used. As we learn from Matthew, 
it was hewn outofarock. An ancient commentator says 
“Tt is a striking proof of our Lord’s poverty, that while He 
lived He had no house of His own, and when He died He 
was buried in another’s tomb.” The sepulchre was very 
near and there the blessed, precious body was deposited. 
There He rested till the dawn of the third day, the first 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 379 


day of the week. ‘“Thus ended the most wonderful funeral 
the sun ever shone upon. Such a death and such a burial— 
so little understood by man and so important in the sight 
of God,—there never was and never can be again. Who 
need doubt the love of Christ, when we consider the deep 
humiliation that Christ went through for our sakes! ‘To 
tabernacle in our flesh at all, to die after the manner of a 
man, to allow His holy body to hang on a cross, to suffer 
it to be lifted, handled, carried like a lump of cold clay, and 
shut up in a dark, silent, solitary tomb,—this was indeed 
love that passeth knowledge. What true believer need 
fear the grave now? Solemn as is the thought of our last 
narrow bed, we must never forget that it is the place where 
the Lord lay. ‘The sting of death is sin, and the strength 
of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us 
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor. xv:56).’* 

Matthew Henry says “Christ’s death should comfort us 
against the fear of death. The grave could not long keep 
Christ, and it shall not long keep us. It was a loathsome 
prison before, it is a perfumed bed now. He whose Head 
is in Heaven, need not fear to put his feet in a grave.” 





*Expositoy Thoughts on John. 


CHAPTER XX 


If the Gospel of John ended with the previous chapter, 
with the account of the burial of the Crucified One, we would 
have no Gospel of salvation at all, no assurance and no hope. 
That most subtle and dangerous infidelity, which is known 
as ‘‘Modernism,” denies the physical resurrection of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. It leaves Him in the grave. The tomb 
was never opened and the body of our holy Lord became the 
prey of corruption. According to Modernism, He did not 
rise from the dead, nor did He ascend into heaven, nor is 
He in heaven as the glorified Man, nor is He ever coming 
again. Yet this monstrosity claims the name of “Christian- 
ity’! The two great pillars upon which Christianity rests 
are the Virgin birth, and the physical resurrection of Christ 
after He had expired on the cross, as the substitute of sin- 


380 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


ners, and was buried. If either one of these pillars is de- 
molished the whole Gospel scheme collapses. It has pleased 
the Spirit of God to give us His logic on this point. In the 
First Epistle to the Corinthians there is a divine definition 
of the Gospel, by which sinners are saved. ‘For J delivered 
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that 
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and 
that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day 
according to the Scriptures.’ ‘Then after marshalling the 
mighty witnesses of His physical resurrection, we find that 
magnificent argument as to the immense importance of His 
bodily resurrection. If Christ be not risen—then what? 
‘And if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain, and 
your faith is also vain.’ There is nothing left to preach 
about, and any faith in Christ is a vain and a foolish thing. 
‘“Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we 
have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He 
raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.”? Cephas and 
the twelve, the five hundred brethren, James and all the 
Apostles, as well as the women who claimed to have seen 
Him, conversed with Him,seen Him alive, in whose presence 
He ate, were all miserable deceivers, and bore a false wit- 
ness, when they said He was risen from the dead, if He had 
never left the grave. And the Apostle Paul also was a false 
witness, when he declared he had seen Him in the glory 
light on the road to Damascus. 

‘“‘And if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain; ye are 
yet in your sins.”” For a dead Christ has no power to save. 
If His body was never raised from the dead, His death and 
His precious blood has no more power to do anything for 
man than the death of any other human being. ‘“Then they 
also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” They 
died trusting in a false hope of resurrection; if He was not 
raised then nobody will be raised from the dead. “‘If in 
this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men 
most miserable.” For one who hopes in Christ, suffers on 
account of his faith, has hardship, denies himself, is most 
miserable inasmuch as he hopes in one who is dead, who 
cannot do anything for him. Such is the divine logic, 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 381 


showing the great importance of the physical resurrection 
of Him who died on the cross. 

Therefore His bodily resurrection is an event upon which 
the whole redemption plan rests; it is one of the cardinal 
doctrines of Christianity. The evidences of His literal and 
physical resurrection are of such a nature that they are con- 
clusive. It rests on fuller evidence and surer and better 
grounds than any event in history. 

He was seen eleven times after His death and burial, and 
appeared at different times of the day, to different persons 
in different ways. He was seen by women and by men, at 
the sea-shore, in rooms when doors were closed, on a country 
road and on a mountain. At one time five hundred saw 
Him. It is impossible that so large a number of brethren 
could be self-deceived, or concocted a falsehood. And those 
who saw Him, to whom He appeared, talked with Him, 
walked with Him, sat at the table with Him, they saw Him 
eat and touched His body. It must also be remembered 
that many of these witnesses were reluctant to believe the 
report, that He was alive. Thomas would only accept the 
report of His resurrection by seeing Him, and putting his 
hand into His side. And the little band of His followers, 
who had nearly all deserted Him, who were cowards in 
spirit, a short time after became courageous witnesses to the 
fact of His resurrection. All apostolic preaching centers in 
the resurrection of Christ. Peter in his inspired testimony 
on the day of Pentecost preached the fact of His resurrection, 
and ever after, as well as the other witnesses, including the 
Apostle Paul. Something happened or they could not have 
given such a bold and unflinching testimony; even the ration- 
alist, Strauss, who, like the present day Modernist, denied 
the resurrection, said ‘‘something extraordinary must have 
occurred.” 

The destructive critics, as they are now generally called, 
Modernists, like other infidels have charged the divine 
records concerning the resurrection of our Lord with being 
contradictory. They claim that there are discrepancies 
which cannot be reconciled. While there are difficulties 
they are not contradictions, such as the Modernist claims 
them to be. Furthermore, the different accounts can be 


382 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


satisfactorily harmonized. Instead of being the marks of 
errors, or deception, these different records bear witness to 
their genuineness and trustworthiness. 

Verses 1-10. The first day of the week was soon to dawn. 
It was early and still dark, though the sun was about to 
rise (Mark xvi:2) when Mary Magdalene came to the 
sepulchre. Here we face the first difficulty. Was she alone 
or did other women accompany her? Mark in his record 
says that the first appearance of our risen Lord was to Mary 
Magdalene (Mark xvi:9), but he does not describe the 
manner of that appearance. The Apostle John tells us 
how He appeared to her (verses 11-13). According to John 
she came alone to the sepulchre; but Matthew, Mark and 
Luke tell us that other women were in her company. There 
can be no question that Mary Magdalene was not alone 
when she went to the sepulchre. It would have been un- 
natural, not woman-like, for her to venture out alone when 
it was still night, especially in view of the fact that a large 
number of strangers were encamped outside of the walls of 
Jerusalem, on account of the Passover feast. There is a 
hint that others were with her in the second verse. When 
she met Simon Peter and the other disciples she said, ‘“They 
have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know 
not where they have laid Him.’ Had she been alone she 
would have said, “I know not where they laid Him’’; but 
she said “‘we know not” evidently speaking for the other 
women who were with her. The Holy Spirit makes her 
prominent in this account as given by John, because his 
inspired pen was to give the details of the first appearance 
of the risen Christ. He singled her out, out of whom He 
had cast seven demons (Mark xvi:9), to be the first witness 
of His triumphant resurrection. The loving gratitude she 
felt for Him prompted her to be probably the leader of the 
company of women, who went out so very early to the 
sepulchre. 

When Mary Magdalene and her companions arrived at 
the sepulchre, they found the stone taken away from the 
sepulchre. Mary Magdalene observed this before the others 
noticed it. Perhaps in her eagerness to get to the sepulchre 
she walked faster than the other women and therefore 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 383 


noticed first that the stone was rolled away. The resurrec- 
tion had already taken place. No human eye had witnessed 
the great act when God raised Him from the dead, as no 
created eye had witnessed the mystery of His sufferings on 
the cross, when darkness for three hours enshrouded the 
divine sufferer. 

Matthew tells us that there was a great earthquake, for 
an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and rolled 
back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. And for fear 
of him the Roman soldiers trembled and became as dead. 
But before the stone had been rolled away He had arisen. 
Mary Magdalene and her companions came after all this 
had transpired. ‘They probably knew nothing of the guard 
which had been placed before the sepulchre, or they would 
not have gone so early to the place. The soldiers had fled. 
None of the women saw anything of them. And Mary 
Magdalene, the moment she saw that the stone was taken 
away ran off, without a further investigation of the empty 
tomb. She ran to tell Peter and the other disciple whom 
Jesus loved, which is John. Where she met them we do not 
know, but it may be surmised that their dwelling place was 
not at a very great distance from the garden where He had 
been buried. And while she ran the rest of the women drew 
nearer to the sepulchre. Peter and John evidently dwelt 
together, and let us not forget, that Mary, the mother of 
Jesus was there also. How fast the feet of loving, grateful 
Mary Magdalene must have run to convey the good news, 
that the stone was rolled away, to the two disciples and to 
the mother of the Lord! And yet she did not know the full 
truth. She was still ignorant of the good tidings ‘‘He is 
risen.” All she knew was “They have taken away the Lord 
out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have 
laid Him.” She did not even imagine that He was alive, 
but thought somebody had taken the lifeless body of her 
Lord and put Him somewhere. Then there was some more 
running. Both Peter and John ran a race to reach the 
garden where the sepulchre was as quickly as possible. 
John beat Peter in this race and came first to the sepulchre. 
How often Peter and John are seen together. They were 
fishermen together. They were present with James on the 


384 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


Mount of Transfiguration, at the house of Jairus and in 
Gethsemane. John was a witness of Peter’s shameful denial 
also. Perhaps during the two nights after Peter’s denial 
there was but little sleep for either one. Peter was over- 
come with grief and we suppose loving John tried to comfort 
him and cheer his heart, when suddenly Mary appeared, 
with her astonishing news. No wonder that both ran as 
quickly as they could. What thoughts of wonder and 
amazement must have filled their minds as they ran thus 
together! 

While John reached the place first, because he was the 
younger, and saw the linen burial clothes lying, he did not 
enter in. Peter, who followed him closely, went into the 
sepulchre, saw the linen clothes ‘“‘and the napkin, that was 
about His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped 
together in a place by itself.””’ Then John also went in and 
saw and believed. 

Here, then, was a conclusive and perfect proof that the 
body of the Lord had not been hastily removed by thieves, 
whether friends or foes. Like one who had slept, and who 
disposes in an orderly way of his garments, the Lord in 
arising from the sleep of death, had folded the linen clothes 
and the napkin. There was no haste displayed, but all 
had been done calmly and deliberately. When Lazarus came 
forth from his grave, at the command of the Lord, the 
grave clothes were about him, and they had to loose him. 
Not so with the Lord. He needed no one to loosen the bands 
and the napkin. He did it Himself. 

“The linen clothes lying were a sign of the resurrection. 
For neither if any person had removed the body, would they, 
before doing so, have stripped it; nor if any had stolen it, 
would they have taken the trouble to remove the napkin, 
and roll it up and lay it in a place by itself. They would 
have taken the body as it was. On this account, John tells 
us, by anticipation, that the body was buried with much 
myrrh, which glues linen to the body not less firmly than 
lead, in order that when thou hearest that the napkin lay 
apart, thou mayest not endure those who say the body was 
stolen. A thief would not have been so foolish as to spend 
so much time on superfluous matter. Why should he undo 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 385 


the clothes? How could he have escaped detection if he 
had done so? But why did the clothes lie apart while the 
napkin was wrapped together by itself? That thou mayest 
know that it was not the action of men in confusion or in 
haste.”’* 

It seems up to this moment neither John nor Peter had 
understood the meaning of the Scriptures, that Christ 
should rise after His passion, nor His own words in which 
He had predicted this momentous event. But now they 
saw and believed, though the full meaning, as revealed in 
the Scriptures, was not known to them, just as Cleopas and 
his companion on the road to Emaus were ignorant of it. 
Peter and John returned to their dwelling. 

Verses 11-18. Peter and John had returned to their 
own home, probably to eat their breakfast. It shows a 
strange indifference, the result of not knowing the Scriptures. 
The sight of the empty tomb had convinced them that the 
body was not there. If they had known the Scriptures 
they would have remained, constrained by love and hope, 
to see Him who was risen from the dead. It was different 
with Mary. She remained at the sepulchre. She had 
not entered, as Peter had done. Standing without she wept. 
She too was ignorant of the Word of God concerning His 
resurrection. But what she lacked in knowledge was made 
up by her deep love for Him who had delivered her, by His 
divine power, from the dominion of demons. She tarried 
at the hallowed spot, with tears streaming down her face, 
hoping that in some way her question, where they had put 
the body of the Lord, might be answered. An old commen- 
tator says: ‘The going away of Peter and John commends 
Mary’s staying behind. To the grave she came before 
them, from the grave she went telling them, to the grave 
she returned with them, at the grave she remained behind 
them.” 

Then weeping still she stooped down, and ventured a 
look into the sepulchre. She had not done this before. 
When she saw the stone taken away, and the Roman soldiers 
gone, she surmised that the grave was empty. Then Peter 





*Chrysostom. 


386 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


and John had convinced themselves that the body was gone. 
Mary now wanted to see with her own eyes, and as she looked 
into the sepulchre, she saw what the two disciples had not 
seen. She beheld two angels in white sitting, the one at the 
head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus 
had lain. There can be no question that they had been 
there when Peter and John had examined the sepulchre, 
but they were invisible to them, while they became visible 
to Mary. Modernists use this fact as an alleged evidence 
of the untrustworthiness of this record. They claim here 
is an irreconcilable contradiction. Like the Sadducees, 
Modernists do not believe in angels. If they believed in 
these supernatural beings» of whom the Bible has so much 
to say, they would also believe the record. The Angels of 
God appear and disappear, become visible and invisible, 
instantaneously and supernaturally, according to God’s 
command. Elisha saw the heavenly hosts, while his servant 
did not see them; but in answer to the prophet’s prayer the 
servant beheld them likewise. | 

Were these angels sent in connection with His triumphant 
resurrection, or were they present at the moment when the 
lifeless body of our Lord was deposited in the sepulchre? 
While Scripture does not answer this question, we believe 
they were sent by God the moment the body was laid in the 
grave to keep guard over His holy body, as it is written in 
the ninety-first psalm “He shall give His angels charge 
over Thee.” 

And Mary was not startled by beholding these tenants of 
the heavens. There is no outcry of fear, no alarm, as is 
generally the case when angels suddenly appear. Her heart 
was so fully occupied with the Lord, and the absence of 
His holy body, that she was delivered from all fear. And 
we too, if our Lord is the absorbing object of our heart, 
shall fear nothing. 

The angels then spoke to her. ‘‘Woman, why weepest 
thou?’ What tender sympathy this question reveals! 
They knew, of course, why she wept. Here is an evidence 
that the holy angels of God enter with sympathy into 
human affairs, the sorrows of His people, as they also 
rejoice when a sinner repents, and are the unseen witnesses 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 387 


of Christian worship.* But the question carried with it 
assurance, which weeping Mary was not able to grasp. 
Why weepest thou? Was there any reason for this pro- 
longed lamentation? Their presence should have con- 
vinced her that all was well. With such a guard no enemy 
would have taken away His blessed body. Why weepest 
thou? There is no place for tears here. Instead of weeping 
eyes there should have been lips of holy laughter, shouts 
of joy and shouts of praise. But she knew not this. She 
answered the angelic question. She takes it for granted 
that the angels knew whom she meant and of whom she 
spoke as “my Lord.” Yet not the faintest thought that 
He might be risen and alive enters her mind. As another 
says: “All was in error; tears of grief,—but false grief, 
imagining that to be which was not, and Him to be dead, 
who was alive. She weeps, because she finds the grave 
empty, which, God forbid, she should have found full, 
for the Christ must have been dead still, and there would 
be no resurrection. And this case of Mary Magdalene is 
our case oftentimes. It is the error of our conceit to weep 
when we have no cause, and to joy when we have as little. 
False joys and false sorrows, false hopes and false fears, this 
life of ours is full of them.” 

And now suddenly something happens. The all-impor- 
tant statement, which burdened her heart, had been made 
to the heavenly visitors and watchers in the tomb. Natur- 
ally she expected an answer. Her eyes must have eagerly 
watched the faces and the lips of the angels. Instead, when 
she had said this, she turned backward. She turned around 
and away from the angels. What produced this changed 
attitude? Something must have occurred which made her 
turn away so abruptly from the empty tomb, without 
waiting for an answer from the angels. She may have 
heard approaching footsteps; or she may have felt instinc- 
tively that some one stood behind her. Perhaps the angels 
were responsible for directing her attention away from them- 
selves to the person which had appeared. ‘They knew the 
Lord. They may have arisen in holy awe and worship, 





* Our volume, “‘The Angels of God,” covers this interesting truth 
more fully. 


388 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


and riveting their eye upon Him, Mary too turned around 
to see who the Person was. 

She sees Him, but does not know that it is Jesus. Not 
her tear-dimmed eyes prevented her recognition of the Lord, 
whom she knew so well, but, as it was with the two on the 
road to Emmaus, her eyes were supernaturally holden. 
And perhaps the element of glory which enshrouded now 
the risen body of His humiliation also contributed to the 
failure to know that it was Jesus. And now He speaks. 
“Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?” 
Just as the angels knew, why she was weeping, so He knew 
all about her tears and whom she was seeking. Like the 
angels, He questioned her thus to show His loving sym- 
pathy, only His is greater than the sympathy of angels. 
Whom seekest thou? was a searching question. She had 
believed on Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God. 
She had witnessed His miracles. She herself had been 
miraculously delivered by Him and His Word of power. 
Art thou seeking such a One, who came to seek and save 
you? Seeking Him among the dead who is the Prince of 
life, the Lord of glory! The question has in it a gentle 
rebuke to her anxious weeping. 

And Mary thought she was speaking to the gardener. 
She comes with the same burden she had stated twice before. 
“Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast 
laid Him, and I will take Him away.” She manifests again 
her fullest occupation with Him only. She takes it for 
granted that the gardener must know whom she means; 
and though the person before her appears as a stranger, 
she is not a bit more alarmed, than when she faced the angels. 
And in her impulsive, passionate speaking, she declared her 
willingness to take His body away, if she only could discover 
where the body is. Then He speaks. ‘Mary! This one 
word was enough to open her eyes. She turned again, 
probably to fall at His feet, and cried out “Rabboni.”” What 
joy must have filled her heart at the great discovery, that 
He who died is risen from among the dead and stood now 
before her in His resurrection glory. She had sown in tears 
and reaps now in joy. “It was the Good Shepherd calling 
His own sheep by name. She was the same to Him as ever. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 389 


He stood in resurrection power; but His love was the same 
to her, certainly not less than when He had cast seven demons 
out of her. Doubtless there was a sameness in the expres- 
sion of her name, which went straight home to her heart, 
and recalled her from her dream about His person, once dead, 
but now in truth alive forever more.” 

We see her at His feet, and then He spoke: ‘““Touch me 
not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my 
brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, 
and your Father, and to my God and to your God.” From 
this we surmise that she was about to lay hold of His feet 
and cover them now with her tears of joy and gratitude. 
If we turn to Matthew xxviii:9 we read that the women 
“came and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him.” 
Needless to say that this also has been pointed out as a 
discrepancy. It is not, but a mark of the divine authorship 
of the Gospel records. 

Conservative exegetes have tried to explain the Lord’s 
words to Mary in different ways. Some have thought that 
our Lord knew that she might have been carried too far 
in her loving demonstration, under momentary excitement, 
and that the Lord forbade her to touch Him, to repress 
these feelings. We do not think this explanation is worthy 
of consideration. 

The better explanation is on the dispensational aspect of 
the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of John. 

In spite of much scribbling against the teaching that the 
Gospel of Matthew is the Kingdom Gospel, with a striking 
dispensational aspect and message, all painstaking students 
of this Gospel maintain this still and find in it the great 
wisdom of inspiration. We see in this first Gospel the 
Lord Jesus Christ, as the Son of David, coming to His own 
as the promised King. He preached the Kingdom and 
that was rejected. Then He died and rose from among the 
dead. One characteristic feature of the Gospel of Matthew 
is that nothing is said of the ascension. If we had only 
the Gospel of Matthew we would have to believe that the 
risen Christ never left the earth, but is still herein person. 
The evident purpose of this is to show that the Son of David 
will some day be the King on earth, as it is so abundantly 


390 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


predicted in the prophetic Word. At the close of the Gospel 
of Matthew the Lord is seen resuming His relation with the 
Jewish remnant. The women who held Him by the feet 
and worshipped Him represented typically that remnant, 
who will, after His return, enjoy His kingly presence on 
earth. 

But this is not the viewpoint in the Gospel of John. Here 
we are outside the kingdom aspect; a new order of things is 
to be introduced and a new relationship is to be established. 
As the risen Christ He ascended on high to take His place 
at the right hand of God. He is now to be regarded not 
in His bodily presence here on earth, but as the object of 
faith, received up in glory. To exemplify this the Lord 
Jesus Christ told Mary not to touch Him, for He was not 
yet ascended to His Father. After His ascension believers 
are brought into a spiritual union with Him, and know Him 
no longer after the flesh, but know Him as glorified in heaven; 
and through Him know His Father, as their Father, and 
His God, as their God. The command to Mary ‘“Touch Me 
not” has therefore an interesting and deep symbolical 
meaning. The earthly relationship with the Jews ceases 
and a new relationship, the heavenly, is to be introduced. 
In the earthly relationship with the Jewish remnant, resumed 
at our Lord’s return, He will be bodily present in the king- 
dom; but in the heavenly relationship He is bodily absent 
and believers are in a heavenly union with the risen Christ. 
Chrysostom’s comment is helpful and interesting. 

“Methinks Mary wished still to converse with Jesus as 
before, and in her joy perceived nothing great in Him, 
although He had become far more excellent in the flesh. 
To lead her therefore from this idea, and that she might 
speak to Him with awe (for neither with the disciples doth 
He henceforth appear so familiar as before), He raiseth her 
thoughts, that she should give more reverent heed to Him. 
To have said, ‘Approach Me not as you did before, for 
matters are not in the same state; nor shall I henceforth be 
with you in the same way,’ would have been harsh and high- 
sounding. But the saying, ‘I am not yet ascended to my 
Father,’ though not painful to hear, was the same thing. 
For by saying, ‘I am not yet ascended,’ He showeth that He 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 391 


hasteth and passeth thither, and that it was not meet that 
one about to depart thither, and no longer to converse with 
men, should be looked on with the same feelings as before.” 

Then He sent her with a message, ‘‘Go tell my brethren.” 
It is the message of this new relationship. It had been 
indicated by Him at the close of Matthew xii, when Israel 
had rejected the kingdom message (Matthew x1i:50). In 
the twenty-second Psalm, after the suffering is over, we read, 
“IT will declare Thy Name unto My brethren.” This 
relationship is brought about by His death, His resurrection 
and His ascension. As His brethren believers are put 
through grace into the same place as Himself. And how 
glad Mary Magdalene must have been for the commission! 
And what a messenger of good tidings she must have made! 

Verses 19-23. The great day, which we might well call 
one of the most eventful in human history, had a wonderful 
ending. He had appeared four times in His risen glory. First 
Mary Magdalene had seen Him; then the women as they 
returned from the grave met Him (Matt. xxviii:9); then 
He appeared to Peter and also to the two who were on the 
road to Emmaus. 

And now the evening of this first Lord’s Day (Rev. i:10) 
had come. The disciples had gathered together in a room, 
perhaps the same room where He had instituted the memorial 
feast, which we call the Lord’s Supper, and where He had 
uttered His last words to them, and prayed His great prayer. 
It is hard to imagine in what state of mind they were. They 
were reluctant to believe the good news of the empty tomb. 
Their hope had died, when He had been nailed to the cross, 
and when He had been buried. And when finally they be- 
lieved, it was like being begotten anew, as Peter expresses 
it, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us 
again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
from the dead”’ (1 Pet. i:3). 

The doors were tightly closed for fear of the Jews. Their 
fears were not unfounded, for the report had been circulated 
on the self-same day, by the lies and the bribery of the Jewish 
elders, that the disciples had stolen the body while the 
Roman guard slept (Matt. xxviii:13). They feared arrest. 


392 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


But that arrest on the false charge that they were thieves 
never came. ‘The soldiers did not dare press the false 
charge, for if they did they took their lives into their hands; 
it was a crime for a guard to sleep, punishable by death. 

Suddenly, with the doors securely fastened, He came and 
stood in their midst. Did the doors open by themselves in 
a miraculous way, or did they remain closed, and He enter 
in through the closed doors? We know when Peter was 
delivered out of prison by the ministry of an angel, the doors 
were caused to open by supernatural power; it was a miracle. 
The same had happened before (Acts v and xii). But here 
no such miracle took place, but we have a startling mani- 
festation of the power of the risen body of our Lord. The 
doors needed not to be unbolted to let Him in. The text 
makes it clear that the doors remained closed, especially 
when He appeared again, “‘the doors being shut, He stood 
in the midst.”” The risen body of our Lord was not bound or 
controlled by the laws which bind and control the natural 
body of man. He could enter in, without an angel coming and 
opening the doors for Him. The risen body is a miracle 
in itself. That body is supernatural. While it was a real 
human body, a material body, a body which could be touched 
and handled, which had bones and flesh, yet it was a spirit- 
ual body, endowed with powers which are above our under- 
standing. In that body He appeared and disappeared, was 
visible and invisible, entered through a closed door and de- 
parted through a closed door, and it could finally be lifted up, 
no law of gravitation putting a check upon it, and carried ina 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, through the heavens into 
heaven itself. The resurrection body is a great mystery and 
will remain a mystery till we look no longer into a glass 
darkly. When that blessed day comes, we shall have the re- 
demption of our body, and that future body, in which we shall 
spend eternity, will be like unto His own glorious body (Phil. 
1ii:21). Then we shall know. Then we shall live as He lives, 
in a resurrection body of glory. 

Modernism ridicules such a faith. They talk of philo- 
sophical and scientific impossibilities, which is so “high 
sounding.” We believe the Word of God, what God has 
been pleased to reveal. True faith bows in humility acknowl- 


™~ 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 393 


edging on the one hand the limitation of the finite mind, and 
on the other, an omnipotent God who can do all things. 
Modernism is the pride of the natural man gone to seed, and 
unbelief in the power of God. 

“Peace be unto you” was the first word He uttered in the 
presence of the disciples. This is still the greeting among 
orthodox Jews, as it was the mode of salutation among 
the Jewish people in those days He walked on earth. But it 
is more than the formal, every-day greeting. One of the 
last words He had uttered before the cross was that word 
“Peace” (xvi:33). The first word He speaks here is the 
same. And what had happened? He had died the sacri- 
ficial death as the Lamb of God. Peace was made in the 
blood of the Cross. The great work had been finished. What 
had happened? Peter had denied His Lord; they all had 
forsaken Him, had acted like cowards; they had been 
unbelieving. But as He appears no word of reproof or accusa- 
tion came from His lips. Instead of reminding them of their 
shameful failure, He said, ‘‘Peace be unto you.” His greeting 
told them that all was forgiven and forgotten; that there 
was nothing between Him and them. What cheer it must 
have brought to their accusing consciences, and what 
comfort to their hearts! 

But was He really ‘“‘the same Jesus”? Was He the One 
who hung on the cross, or was it some kind of an apparition, 
a ghost or an illusion? It is all settled by Himself. “He 
showed unto them His hands and His side. Then were the 
disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” It seems up to 
the moment He showed them His hands and His side, they 
were not quite convinced that it was really their risen 
Lord. But now as they beheld the pierced hands, which a 
short time before had been nailed to the cross, and when they 
beheld the place where the spear had pierced His blessed 
side all doubts vanished, joy and gladness filled their hearts. 
One look at the marks of His passion was sufficient to give 
them assuring joy. There faith looks still, realizing that 
peace with God is not what we have done, but what He has 
done. But what will be our joy when we see Him as He 
is in His second coming! It is strange that John Calvin 
should have taught that the nail-prints, and the spear wound, 


394 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


were only seen for a short time, till the Apostles were fully 
convinced; afterwards they disappeared. These marks of 
His passion and love are still seen in heaven, in His glorified 
body. Revelation v:6 tells us so. All the redeemed in 
glory shall see them, and when He comes to earth again the 
pierced hands, feet and side will be the marks of identifica- 
tion for the Jew. (See Chapter xix:37.) 

Once more He said “‘Peace be unto you.” This second 
announcement of peace must be linked with the commission 
He gives to them. They are to carry the Gospel of peace to 
others, peace to him that is far off (the Gentile) and to 
him that is near (the Jew) (Isaiah lvii:19). He was the sent 
One of the Father, and so-they, and all believers after them, 
are sent forth by the Lord. He was the representative of 
the Father, and we are His representatives. What an honor 
and dignity! And what responsibility also! How little 
God’s children think of all this. We are no longer of the 
world, but He has sent us to it to bear witness of Him and 
of His peace. What He had prayed before the cross (xvii:18), 
He now does. 

Then follows a significant act. ‘He breathed into them 
and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” The 
term “breathed into” (them, is not in the Greek) is mentioned 
only here in the New Testament. The Greek word used is 
the same with which the translators of the Septuagint trans- 
late Gen. 11:7, when the Lord breathed into man the breath 
of life. This gives the real, symbolical meaning of this 
action of our Lord. In creation the same Lord, who is now 
in the midst of His own, in resurrection glory, had breathed 
into Adam the breath of life. Here by this breathing He 
indicates the communication of another life. The One 
by whom and for whom all things were created, in whose 
image the first man was created, and into whom He breathed, 
as quoted above, became Man Himself. He is the last 
Adam. He is now, after His work as the other Adam had 
been accomplished, the communicator, the giver of a better 
life, of eternal life. ‘““The last Adam is made a quickening 
Spirit” (1 Cor. xv:45). He is the beginning of the new 
creation, as the first Adam was the beginning of the old 
creation. The inbreathing therefore stands for the com- 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 395 


munication of eternal life, which He bestows upon those 
who believe on Him. But those disciples were already in 
possession of eternal life, for they had believed on fim. 
It could therefore not mean that He gave them the life, 
which they already had. For this reason we say, it is a 
symbolical action. He manifests Himself now openly, as 
risen from the dead, as the Last Adam. 

But what does it mean when He said, “Receive ye the 
Holy Spirit’? Many explanations have been given. Some 
think He revived by it the life which they already had; 
others say that He bestowed energy to wait patiently for 
the coming of the Holy Spirit, or that they became filled 
with better knowledge and understanding. That it was 
not the coming of the Paraclete, the other comforter 
He had promised, is obvious. The third person of the Trinity 
did not come till the Lord Jesus was glorified, and that 
glorification demanded His return to the Father. The 
Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost, and not here 
in the upper room on the first Lord’s day. In saying these 
words He shows that He is not only the communicator 
of life, but also the giver of the Spirit; the Holy Spirit not 
only proceeds from the Father, but from the Son as well. 
He showed beforehand by these words they would receive 
the Holy Spirit personally, as the power and energy of His 
own risen life in them. The reception of the Spirit was 
accomplished on Pentecost. 

The final words, spoken by Him at this occasion, have 
often puzzled Christians, mostly on account of the claims 
made by an unscriptural priesthood in the professing church. 
*‘Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto the 
whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” 

We state briefly some of the leading interpretations of 
this verse. (1) Some explain that the Lord gave power to 
the Apostles to absolve men from sin, and also to retain 
sin. But this power was purely personal power, belonging 
only to the Apostolic Age, ceasing with the sign gifts, such 
as the gift of tongues and the gift of healing. (2) The Romish 
view is that the Apostles received this power of infallibly 
absolving and anathematizing, and that this same power 
was conferred by the Apostles to their successors, thus 


396 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


constituting a self-perpetuating hierarchy. It is found in 
a modified form in different ritualistic denominations of 
Prdf€stantism. It is an unscriptural view from start to 
finish. There is no hint anywhere in Scripture that the 
Apostles appointed successors and therefore apostolic 
succession is an invention. (3) A third view is that the 
power promised and authority given is in connection with 
the preaching of the Gospel, announcing on what terms 
sins would be forgiven, and if these terms are not accepted 
sins would be retained. (4) Still another view is that the 
Lord gives in these words a warning as well as a promise. 
Some teach that Christians remit sins when, by their in- 
fluence, their testimony.and their example, they induce 
sinners to repent and accept Christ; that they retain sins 
when, by their negligence, they keep sinners back from 
accepting Christ. This is a far-fetched interpretation. But 
there are other views. 

The power to forgive sins is God’s prerogative. The Jews 
said when the Lord Jesus told the paralytic, “Man, thy 
sins are torgiven thee,’”’ “Who is this which speaketh blas- 
phemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?’ (Luke 
v:21). They were right. If the Lord Jesus Christ is not 
God then He uttered a blasphemy. And s0 it is a blasphemy 
for man to claim power to forgive the sins of another man. 
This is what Romanism teaches by claiming the power 
to absolve sinners, and also to shut heaven against persons 
not absolved. It is a monstrous teaching. 

But what did our Lord mean when He spoke these words? 

He conferred upon them undoubtedly the power of de- 
claring through the preaching of the Gospel, in the power 
of the Holy Spirit, whose sins are forgiven, and whose sins 
are not forgiven. Their.preaching in the Book of Acts gives 
us examples of this declaration. Peter said in the house of 
Cornelius, “Whosoever believeth on Him shall receive 
remission of sins.” When Paul preached the Gospel in 
Antioch of Pisidia, he said, ““Through this man is preached 
unto you the forgiveness of sins,’” and later he said to the 
jailor in the Macedonian city, “Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ and thou shalt be saved.” They declared that those 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 397 


who believe have their sins remitted, and, naturally, those 
who do not believe their sins are retained. 

But this is not all. As a result of the gift of the Holy 
Spirit on the day of Pentecost the assembly, that is, the 
Church, was formed. The assembly, the gathering of those 
who have believed and are saved, has power and authority 
in discipline. ‘Those who believe are accepted into fellow- 
ship, their sins are remitted. The wicked person, of whom 
we read in the Corinthian assembly, was ordered to be 
put away by the assembly, but after his repentance, his 
self-judgment and deep sorrow, was received back. And 
Paul wrote, ““To whom ye (the assembly) forgive anything, 
I also; for also what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven 
anything (it is) for your sakes in the person of Christ” 
(2 Cor, 11:10), Thus the assembly by receiving, pronounce 
the remission of sins, and by putting away out of fellowship, 
the retaining of sins. 

Verses 24-31. The final portion of this chapter brings 
before us a second manifestation of the risen Christ, probably 
in the same place, a week after the first manifestation. 
Thomas, one of the twelve, who was called Didymus, had 
been absent at the first appearance of Christ. Why he had 
not gathered with the others is not stated. Twice before we 
have met his name in this Gospel, and apart from these pas- 
sages we know nothing else. He has been called a rationalist 
with a warm heart. His devotion to the Lord we have 
pointed out before. (See Chapter xi:1-4.) 

When the other disciples gave to him the blessed informa- 
tion “We have seen the Lord,” he refused to believe what 
these reliable witnesses told him. They were his friends and 
his fellow disciples. What could be their motive in telling 
him an untruth? His absence from the gathering and his 
unbelief in the Lord’s resurrection may have been permitted 
by the Lord, so as to furnish one of the most conclusive evi- 
dences of His physical resurrection. And so he declared in 
the presence of the ten trustworthy witnesses, emphatically 
and passionately, that he would not believe that the crucified 
One is alive, unless he himself would see and touch His body. 

But what must have been the state of mind of the doubting 
disciple during the week which followed? While his com- 


398 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


panions enjoyed the blessed assurance that their Lord and 
Master is alive, and were filled with great joy and peace, 
Thomas was in darkness, and must have wandered about 
with a heavy heart, produced by the uncertainty which laid 
heavy upon him. 

After eight days had passed all was changed. ‘‘And after 
eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas with 
them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in 
the midst, and said, Peace unto you.” A full week had gone 
by. The memorable day, the first day of the week, on which 
He arose from among the dead, found them again gathered 
in the place “within”? where they had been the week before. 
There can be no question that this is the beginning of the 
keeping of the first day of the week, as the day of rest and 
worship. From the earliest times the day after the Jewish 
Sabbath was called ‘““The Lord’s Day” (Rev. i:10*). 

What led Thomas to be present at that time we can only 
surmise. Perhaps it was his uncertainty, the thought that 
the disciples were truthful in their witness, which induced 
him to seek their fellowship at this occasion. Perhaps during 
the week the Spirit of God may have brought to his remem- 
brance some of the words which the Lord had spoken about 
His death and resurrection on the third day. 

Then suddenly the same happened which happened a 
week before. The doors were shut as they were at the first 
visit. All at once He stood in the midst. And as it was be- 
fore, He utters His blessed ‘‘Peace unto you.” 

From the words which follow it is evident that this second 
appearing of the risen Christ was exclusively for the sake of 
Thomas. Thomas had been unbelieving, yet the Lord in His 
great kindness, knowing his whole story, does not rebuke 
him directly for his unbelief, though the words addressed to 
the unbelieving disciple contain a gracious and loving re- 
minder of his weakness and failure. ‘Reach hither thy 
finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, 
and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but be- 
lieving.” In speaking these words to Thomas, He showed 





*Not “The Day of the Lord” as Bullingerism teaches. This strained 
exposition, besides other errors of the late Dr. B., are now being taught 
by certain Bible teachers. 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 399 


that He had heard every word which Thomas had spoken 
when first told by the disciples that the Lord had appeared 
unto them. The words He spoke to him reveal His great 
condescension. 

“To come into the world at all, and take on the human 
body, then to allow that body to be scourged, crowned with 
thorns, nailed to the cross, and laid in a grave—all this, be- 
yond doubt, was astonishing condescension. But when the 
victory over sin and death was won, and He had taken on 
Him His resurrection body, to come to a doubting, sceptical 
disciple, and bid him touch Him, put his finger into the nail 
prints on His hands, and put his hand into His side—all this 
was condescension which we can never sufficiently admire 
and adore.” Thus He treated in marvelous kindness a dis- 
ciple, who believed in Him, yet was weak in faith. And in 
this He has left us also an example, how to deal with brethren 
who are weak in faith. But it is a different matter with the 
outspoken rationalist, who does not believe, not because he 
cannot, but because he will not. 

But did Thomas do what the Lord bade him to do? Did 
he put his hand into His side, or did his fingers touch the 
nail prints in His hands? It seems that he did not. He is 
taken completely by surprise and bursts out in one great 
ejaculatory sentence, “My Lord and My God.” These five 
words contain the expressions of astonishment, delight, re- 
pentance, grief, faith, confession and adoration. This con- 
fession of Thomas, that Christ is God, is the last witness to 
His Deity in this Gospel. We remind the reader that the 
first testimony to the Deity of Christ in this Gospel was 
uttered by Nathanael. The dispensational-prophetic mean- 
ing we shall point out directly. 

Thomas had seen and therefore believed. Unitarians 
have twisted this testimony in such a way so as to suit their 
denials of the Godhead of our Lord. The late Dr. Lyman 
Abbott in his commentary on this Gospel, written when he 
believed in the Deity of Christ, which was over fifty years 
ago, made the following remarks on the Unitarian attempts 
to break the forceful meaning of the believing outburst of 
Thomas: ‘To interpret this utterance as a mere expletory 
outcry is the shallowest of criticism. It reduces a sublime 


400 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


and exalted confession of faith to an irrelevant and semi- 
profane exclamation. It is grammatically, psychologically, 
and spiritually untenable; grammatically, because it is 
expressly said that Thomas addressed the words directly to 
Jesus; psychologically, because it is equally irrational to 
suppose that Thomas, just convinced of the resurrection of 
his Lord, should break out into a meaningless exclamation, or 
that John should have reported it if it had been uttered; spir- 
itually, because Christ on the strength of this confession 
of Thomas recognizes his faith.” 

“Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen 
Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, 
and yet have believed.” These were His words to adoring 
Thomas. Here we must consider, in explanation of these 
words, the dispensational aspect of the occurrence. Thomas 
is a type of the Jews, not the grossly materialistic portion, 
sO prominent in our days, who have cast off every bit of the 
faith of their fathers, but of that remnant which is coming 
to the foreground during the last years of the present age. 
Like Thomas, they are still unbelieving; they know Him 
not who is risen from among the dead and who is the King 
of Israel. They, too, like Thomas, want to see first, before 
believing. It is constitutional with the Jew that he asks for 
a sign, and does not want to believe till he sees. As it was 
with Thomas, the Lord appeared the second time, so will He 
appear the second time unto them that look for Him (this 
expecting Jewish remnant) unto salvation. When He comes 
again, He will, as it was with Thomas, display the nail prints 
in His hands and feet and His pierced side, so that it might 
be fulfilled “They shall look upon Me whom they pierced, 
and they shall mourn for Him,” for they learn then that He 
was wounded in the house of His friends, wounded for their 
transgressions and bruised for their iniquities. And, like 
Thomas, they will cry out ““My Lord and My God.” Thus 
they will confess Him, when He comes for their final deliver- 
ance, their restoration and spiritual blessing. 

“Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He 
will save us. This is Jehovah, we have waited for Him, we 
will be glad, and rejoice in His salvation” (Is. xxv:9). 

When our Lord said “Blessed are they that have not seen, 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 401 


and yet have believed,” He did not mean the Old Testament 
Saints, but He meant the believers from among the Gentiles, 
gathered into the Body of Christ during this age. This is 
the age of faith and not of sight. We, who love Him, though 
we have never seen Him, and rejoice in Him with joy un- 
speakable and full of glory, have a greater blessedness, than 
the Jew who will see Him in the day of His visible coming, 
and then believe. 

Bishop Ryle remarks on the sentence ‘“‘Blessed are they who 
believe, and yet have not seen”: “The principle contained 
in the sentence before us, is one of vast importance in every 
age, and specially in our own. In a day of scepticism, free 
inquiry and rationalism, so-called, when hundreds are con- 
tinually railing against creeds, and dogmatism, the sen= 
tence deserves close attention and consideration. Noth- 
ing is more common now-a-days than to hear people 
say that they ‘decline to believe things above their reason, 
that they cannot believe what they cannot entirely under- 
stand in religion, that they must see everything clearly be- 
fore they can believe.’ Such talk as this sounds very fine, 
and is very taking with young persons and superficially edu- 
cated people, because it supplies a convenient reason for 
neglecting vital religion altogether. But itis a style of talking 
which shows a mind either proud, or foolish, or inconsistent.” 

We must point out in conclusion the correspondence of 
Thomas with Nathanael, in the first chapter of this Gospel. 
The reader remembers that the day in which the Lord Jesus 
received His first disciples, who followed Him and spent the 
night with Him, is typical of this age in which He gathers 
His Church. To this corresponds the first appearing of the 
risen Christ, recorded in the present chapter. Then in the 
first chapter, on the day following, the second day, Philip 
is called and Nathanael, doubting first, is convinced of the 
Deity and Messiahship of the Lord. We pointed out the 
same lesson we have found here in the case of Thomas; both 
represent the future remnant of Israel. 

The writer of the Gospel, the beloved disciple, speaks of 
many other things which Jesus did, but which are unre- 
corded in this Gospel. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit 
he had written what this Gospel contains, to show that Jesus 


402 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might 
have life through His Name. And this is the double purpose 
of this blessed fourth Gospel, as we have learned in our 
exposition chapter after chapter. 


CHAPTER XXI 


Certain critics have treated this last chapter of John with 
suspicion. Grotius among the more modern commentators 
stated what Tertullian many centuries before had advocated, 
that the Gospel of John ends with the twentieth chapter, 
and that the concluding chapter was written by another 
hand. ‘The notion that chapter xxi is at best a kind of an 
appendix is held by many among them Alford, Stier, Neander, 
Tholuk, Westcott, and a score of others. ‘The contents 
of the chapter prove conclusively that it was written by 
John and forms an important part of the Gospel, therefore 
it is not an appendix at all. 

“From all these theories I entirely dissent, and repudiate 
them altogether. I see no proof whatever that the two last 
verses of the twentieth chapter were intended to be a winding 
up of the whole Gospel. To me they appear to be a char- 
acteristic comment of the Evangelist, such as he often makes, 
on the account he has given in the chapter of our Lord’s 
appearances to the disciples after his resurrection, and 
nothing more. ‘To me it appears perfectly natural that he 
should go on writing, and give a further account of our Lord’s 
most instructive appearance at the sea of Galilee; and I see 
in the narrative no abruptness or awkward fitting whatever. 
On the contrary, I see a peculiar beauty in the selection of 
the matter which the twenty-first chapter contains. It 
seems to me a most fitting conclusion to the whole narrative 
of the Gospel, to tell us our Lord’s last sayings about two 
such Apostles as Peter and John.—Concerning Peter, it 
should be remembered that none of the Apostles had pro- 
fessed so much, and yet fallen so sadly as he had.. John takes 
care to tell us how graciously and emphatically Jesus restores 
him to his commission, and specially bids him feed His 
Church, and foretells his end.—Concerning John, it should 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 403 


be remembered that he had been peculiarly mentioned, as 
the disciple whom Jesus loved. He meekly tells us that the 
only prediction about himself, if it can be called one, was 
that his future end was left in obscurity by his Lord. And 
thus he concludes his Gospel. If any one thinks that such a 
chapter comes in awkwardly, and is not a fitting conclusion 
to John’s narrative after the twentieth chapter, I cannot 
agree with him”’—J. C. Ryle. 

Verses 1-3. The chapter is at once defined as containing 
another manifestation of the risen Christ. It is clearly 
marked as the third time that He showed Himself to His 
disciples (verse 14). There are then two previous mani- 
festations. The first one when Thomas was absent, taking 
place on the resurrection day; the second one a week later, 
recorded at the close of the preceding chapter. The pro- 
phetic-dispensational meaning of these two manifestations 
has been pointed out before. But there must be a third 
time, as in the beginning of the Gospel there is marked off 
-athird day. That third day brought the marriage in Cana 
of Galilee, a blessed picture of the Kingdom which follows 
Israel’s conversion, typified by Nathanael’s conversion. 

The three days in the beginning of this Gospel (chapter 
1:35, 43 and ii:1), with their sweet and instructive dispensa- 
tional lessons, are repeated at the close of the Gospel in the 
three manifestations of the risen One. ‘The third time He 
showed Himself to his disciples is, as we shall see, a striking 
prophetic picture of what will happen after Israel has con- 
fessed Him, as Thomas did. The lesson is the coming in- 
gathering of the Gentile nations into the millennial kingdom. 
This is a strong evidence that this Gospel could not end with 
the twentieth chapter. 

The scene is at the sea of Tiberias, or as it is also called, 
the lake of Gennesaret, the sea of Galilee. What holy and 
blessed memories gather around this historic lake! It is 
the sea across which the disciples toiled hard in rowing, with 
the wind contrary; the sea across which He came walking, 
when Peter left the little ship and walked to meet Him. 
The lake is often stormy; but He stilled the waves and the 
wind with His commanding word of power. At another 
occasion there was a miraculous draught of fishes, when the 


404 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


net broke. In this lake Peter caught the fish, at His direction, 
which supplied the coin to pay the tribute money. Sitting 
in a boat at the lake shore, He delivered some of His parables 
(Matt. xiii). On its shore He fed the multitudes, and in this 
lake the 2,000 swine had rushed to destruction, when the 
demons had entered into them. In one word this lake was 
the frequent scene of the display of His divine power and 
glory. Once more it is to witness His gracious power, His 
loving kindness, His mercy as well as His Lordship. 

We see seven disciples gathered together, among these 
the two disciples which figure so prominently in the beginning 
and in the end of this Gospel, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee 
and Thomas. Were they. in Galilee following the instruction 
of the angel and as commanded later by Himself? (Matt. 
xxviii:7,10). Simon Peter is evidently the leader of the little 
group. He proposed to go a fishing and the others followed 
him as leader. There was nothing wrong with these disciples 
when they took up their trade as fishermen. The time for 
witness bearing had not yet come, for the promised Spirit 
had not yet been given. The fear of the Jews still controlled 
them all. Perhaps it was also the matter of necessity, for 
they were poor men, who had to toil to support themselves. 
But their labors were in vain. Though they were excellent 
fishermen, and fished all night, they caught nothing. Well 
may we see the lesson here that all toil without the Lord 
goes for nothing; unless He directs there is no success. 

Verses 4-14. When the morning was come the risen One 
appeared suddenly on the shore. It was as sudden an appear- 
ance as at the two previous occasions, when they met behind 
closed doors. Where our Lord was between these different 
visible manifestations we do not know. ‘The disciples saw 
a figure standing on the shore, but they did not know that 
it was Jesus, their Lord and Master. They did not recognize 
Him, just as the two going to Emmaus did not know Him, 
because their eyes were holden. And as He called to them 
across the water, they did not know Him either by His 
voice. He spoke like one of their comrades, ‘‘Boys (not 
children) have ye anything to eat?’ And they answered 
Him, “‘No.”? Then He spoke a word of command, ‘“‘Cast the 
net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.” This 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 405 


instruction must have given to the disciples the first hint 
that the speaker might be the Lord. Would they have 
followed the command of a total stranger? Were not John 
and Peter reminded of the time when many months before, 
on the same lake, they had toiled all night and caught 
nothing, but at His Word they let down the nets once more 
and a miraculous draught of fishes resulted! The net was 
cast at once, following the direction given, and when the 
multitude of fishes were caught, the identity of the stranger 
at the shore was no longer guess work with them. 

John, with a heart filled with love, which made him keen- 
sighted, recognized the Lord at once, just as he outran 
Peter and was the first to believe that Christ is risen. As 
elsewhere in this Gospel, which his inspired pen wrote, he 
speaks of himself as “‘that disciple whom Jesus loved.” He 
said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” But Peter is again close 
behind the beloved disciple. Impetuous, impulsive, yet 
affectionate, he rushed at once into action, he cast himself 
into the sea to reach the shore as quickly as possible. He 
is not going to be left behind now, as it was when John beat 
him in running to the tomb in the garden. And probably 
he succeeded this time. The other disciples came in a little 
ship, dragging along the net with fishes, which unlike the 
other net, when there was a miraculous draught of fishes, 
was not broken (Luke v:1-10). What took place, if Peter 
reached the Lord first, is not recorded. Here then is another 
spiritual lesson. Service without Him and without His 
guidance is barren. Alas! how much of such service there is 
today. Service in self-will, or under the leadership of a man, 
as it was with the six disciples who followed Peter that 
memorable night. But if we take our directions from Him 
who is our Lord, especially as “fishers of men,” that is soul 
Winners, and are obedient to His words, and follow His 
directions, His own gracious power will accompany our toil. 

Another miracle is seen by them when they gather at the 
shore. ‘‘As soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire 
of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.” How did 
this coal fire, the broiling fish and the bread get there? 
A little while before they had acknowledged that they had 
nothing to eat. And here is a breakfast prepared for His 


406 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


beloved, toiling servants. There is but one solution of this 
mystery. The pierced hands of the Christ had prepared 
this meal. He started the coal fire. He produced by His 
own omnipotent power, the fish and the bread. He 
showed once more, as He did in the days of His humiliation 
on the same scene, by feeding the multitudes with bread, 
that He is a compassionate, tender, loving Lord, who cares 
for the bodies and temporal needs of His own, as He cares 
for their souls. Such a Lord He is still, He is touched with 
the feeling of our infirmities; He is interested even in a 
breakfast for His children. As we look upon this beautiful 
scene, His deep compassion, remembering that He is still 
the same, the Lord that changeth not, we take new courage 
to come with boldness to the throne of grace, and tell Him 
all our needs. He loves to be trusted and loves to show 
forth His loving kindness and tender mercies, as He did 
when He prepared that morning meal. 

What is the dispensational meaning of this third manifesta- 
tion of the risen Christ and the miraculous draught of fishes? 
It is the picture of the coming kingdom, established after 
Israel’s conversion, when the nations of the earth will be 
gatheredin. The miraculous draught of fishes in the Gospel 
of Luke is a picture of the Gospel net during this present age. 
It breaks and those which are caught can not be numbered. 
But it is different here; the net did not break and the actual 
number of the great fish caught is given, there were One 
Hundred and Fifty and Three. Much guess-work has been 
done as to the meaning of this number. We cannotbe dogmatic 
about it. But the fact that the exact number is given shows 
that it has a meaning. It is of great significance that his- 
torians of the first century speak of the number of nations 
known to them as being 153. This is the only meaning 
which we know of. All the nations, when the Lord comes, 
will be gathered into His Kingdom. 

Then the divine host asked them to partake of the spread 
meal He had so graciously and miraculously provided. 
Here again we see His tender compassion. He knew they 
were tired and hungry. He Himself in the days of humilia- 
tion had been tired and hungry, and therefore He is always 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. But what will 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 407 


be the feast to which He brings His own in days to come, 
the marriage supper of the Lamb? But why did they not 
ask Him, who art Thou? They knew it was the Lord. It 
must have been a holy awe which kept them from asking. 
Here too is proof that His resurrection-body, though the same 
incarnation body, must have been altered. 

Verses 15-17. The meal was over and the Lord turned 
next to Peter. His denial had led Peter to the depths of 
repentance and self-judgment. We must rehearse briefly 
some of these things. Let us remember before Peter ever 
denied the Lord, He knew what was coming. Satan saw 
that Peter was amarked man. He had heard what the Lord 
had said about him (Matt. xvi). He tried to snatch him 
away from the Lord, and so Satan had asked permission to 
sift him, just as long before he had asked for Job. And the 
Lord assured Peter of His intercession in his behalf. Peter’s 
faith for this reason could not fail. 

When the denial had taken place, the Lord “‘looked upon 
Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord.”” What 
a look that must have been! Then Peter went out and wept 
bitterly. A blessed weeping it was. 

In the third place the risen One sent a special message to 
Peter through the women: “Tell His disciples and Peter that 
He goeth before you into Galilee.” But more than that He 
appeared to Peter. ‘“The Lord is risen indeed, and hath ap- 
peared to Simon” (Luke xxiv:33). “He was seen of Cephas’’ 
(1 Cor. xv:5). What occurred at this mysterious interview is a 
secret. No doubt the Lord had then direct dealings with 
Peter, which he was not permitted to reveal. 

And now we come to his restoration to that which he had 
lost by his denial. He addressed Peter. The meal which 
they had enjoyed together was an expression of fellowship. 
Not a word of rebuke had come from the lips of the Lord. He 
might have pointed to the coal-fire and might have asked 
Peter if he remembered another coal-fire, before which he had 
warmed himself a number of days ago in the palace of the 
high priest. He might have asked him of the words of denial 
he had then spoken. But He addressed him in these words, 
“Simon Peter, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these?” 
The reason for this question is very plain. What the Lord 


408 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


asked him was exactly what he had professed. He was loud- 
mouthed in his profession of devotion to Him, saying, “Lord, 
I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison and to death.” 
Confidently he had spoken thus of his strength. Then he 
denied Him thrice. When the Lord asked him the same 
question three times He touched most graciously the sore 
spot, reminding him of his past profession of devotion, and of 
his three denials. It had to be done not in secret, but before 
the six witnesses. Forgiveness was not involved in this. 
The Lord had forgiven him already; it was the answer to his 
penitential tears. The Lord had to restore him to service. 
In the presence of these witnesses He commissioned Peter 
once more, as He had done at Cesarea Philippi, after Peter 
had confessed Him as the Son of God. If such a restoration 
and renewed commission had not taken place others might 
have pointed to Peter and charged him with having forfeited 
his apostleship by his denial, while Peter would have been in 
serious doubt and uncertainty. 

Roman Catholic theologians claim that the Lord estab- 
lished him here as the head of the Church. Dean Burgon 
answered this claim in the following statements: ‘“The profane 
and ridiculous pretensions of the Church of Rome are based 
in great part on the words our Lord addressed to St. Peter in 
this passage. The Papists assume (1) that He hereby 
appointed Peter to be His vicar upon earth; (2) that Peter 
was the first Bishop of Rome and (3) that Peter transmitted 
to the Bishops of the same See, in endless succession his own 
supposed authority over the rest of Christendom. [Each one 
of these assumptions is simply unfounded and untrue; 
opposed alike to Scripture and reason; to the records of the 
early Church and the opinions of the primitive fathers.” 

“Lovest thou Me more than these?”” Then Peter answered 
“Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee.” Our version 
does not distinguish at all between the two words used in the 
_ Greek, translated by “‘love”. ‘The two words are the verbs 
““Agapao’; this expresses fully our English “love”; then 
there is the word “‘Phileo”, which corresponds to our English 
“like”, or as it has been translated ‘‘to have a friendly 
feeling.” When the Lord put His question to Peter, the 
first word is used, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest (4gapas) thou 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 409 


Me more than these?” Now if Peter had not judged him- 
self, if he had still adhered to the same self-confidence he ex- 
hibited before, he would have answered enthusiastically by 
using the same word the Lord had used. Instead he an- 
swered ““Thou knowest that I love (Philo) Thee.” He did not 
dare to use the word which expresses the highest affection. 
It is the evidence that he had learned the lesson and judged 
himself. The second time the Lord asked Peter He uses the 
same word, and Peter answers Him in the same way, em- 
ploying also the same word, expressing a friendly affection. 
But when the Lord asked Peter the third time He uses the 
same word Peter had used, ‘‘Peter, lovest (Phileis) thou 
Me?” And Peter was grieved because He had asked him the 
third time, and answers appealing to His divine omniscience, 
“Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love 
(Philo) Thee.”? The wound had been probed to the very 
bottom, though not a word of blame or reproach had come 
from the lips of the Lord. Peter had revealed in his three 
answers that his old self had been judged and broken. 

And He, who knows indeed all things, knew the condition . 
and state of his soul. He knew that Peter loved Him, and so 
with the first question He commissioned afresh and said 
“Feed My lambs.” He did not mean, as it is so often taught, 
little children; He means by this term believers, who are 
young in the faith and lack in deep spiritual experience. 
They are the little children in the epistle of John, and that 
which is weak has always His first and tenderest care. Hven 
so Isaiah had spoken of Him as the shepherd. “He shall 
feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs 
with His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and shall 
gently lead those that are with young” (Is. xl:11). This 
blessed work, to feed that which is weak with the bread of 
life, he committed to Peter. It is a higher work than the 
exercise of the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, Those 
keys were used by Peter when he preached to the Jews on 
the day of Pentecost, and used again in the house of Cornelius, 
preaching to the Gentiles. With this the use of the keys 
was exhausted. Feeding His lambs is the more permanent 
work. 


410 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


The second time the Lord commissions him, if we trans- 
late literally, to shepherd His sheep. ‘The sheep are those 
which the Spirit of God in John’s epistle designates as 
“young men and fathers,” the more mature believers. 
He is commissioned to tend these sheep, to exercise a loving 
charge over them, doing a true shepherd’s work. Augustinus 
called attention to the fact that the Lord calls the lambs 
and the sheep “My” and not “Thy.” The flock is not the 
flock of a man, but the flock of God. Often preachers 
speak of “my flock” or ‘‘my people.”’ This is an evil habit 
and many servants of Christ speak thus unthoughtfully. 
“He, who treats Christians as his congregation, is guilty 
of the same forgetfulness of Divine grace and authority as the 
congregation in regarding the minister as their minister, in- 
stead of Christ’s. If any think these to be slight distinctions, 
it is clear that they have no right apprehension of a difference 
which is as deep in truth as it is fraught with the most 
momentous consequences for good and ill in practice. Only 
this gives moral elevation, as it alone springs from faith; 
this alone delivers from self, and gives the true relation and 
character, even Christ, whether to those that minister, or to 
those ministered to.” (Wm. Kelly.) 

When Peter later wrote his letter he exhorts the elders, 
as an elder, to do the same which the Lord commissioned 
him to do. ‘‘Feed the flock of God which is among you, 
taking the oversight, not by constraint, but willingly; not 
for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being 
lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock” 
(1 Pet. v:2-3). 

And once more the Lord said “Feed my sheep,” or as 
some manuscripts record it, “little sheep,” which is a term 
of endearment. And what the Lord told Peter He tells 
all those who are called by Him to minister to His flock. 
It is the expression of His own love for His sheep, which 
the servant of Christ is to manifest and which must con- 
strain him. Well has it been said, “Love is the great endow- 
ment of a true pastor of Christ’s flock. He says not to 
Peter, ‘Art thou wise? or learned? or eloquent?’ but “Lovest 
thou me?’ Then, ‘feed.’ Love to Christ begets love to His 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 411 


own people’s souls, which are so precious to Him, and care 
of feeding them.” 

Verses 18-25. But He spoke other words to Peter, 
which are also linked to his former conduct. “Verily, 
verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young thou girdest 
thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest, but when thou 
shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another 
shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. 
Thus spake He, signifying by what death he should glorify 
God. And when He had spoken this, He saith unto him, 
Follow Me.” It is the last “Verily” of this Gospel, in which 
this word so frequently appears. In self-confidence Peter 
had boasted that he would go to prison with the Lord, and 
die with Him. He failed miserably. But what he offered 
to do and could not do, the risen Christ would make possible 
for him. He announced the manner of his death and the 
time of his death, and thereby proving that as Lord He con- 
trols the departure of His servants out of this life. Peter 
was not yetanold man. He was still in his prime of natural 
vigor. When younger still he ventured to go whither he 
would, that is in self-will and self-confidence, as he did when 
he walked into the palace of the high priest after boasting 
that he would die with Christ. The Lord told him when 
he would be older, an aged man, what he as a young man 
in fullest vigor failed todo, the Lord through Grace and 
Power, would enable him to do. He announced that the 
mode of his death would be like Christ’s death, by cruci- 
fixion. When he wrote his second epistle, he was an old 
man. He referred then to these words spoken to him by 
the Lord, “Knowing that shortly I must put off this my 
tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me” 
(2 Pet. 1:14). 

There is a legend that Peter was in Rome when he was 
condemned to be crucified. It is said he tried to escape, and 
outside of Rome he met the Lord, whom he addressed 
by saying in Latin “Quo Vadis Domine,” Whither goest 
thou Lord? And the Lord answered, “To be crucified 
afresh”; then Peter turned back. But it is only a 
legend. We can rest assured when the time came Peter, 
as the Lord had said, stretched out his hands, ready to be 


412 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


crucified. It was the Grace and the Power of the risen, 
enthroned Christ, which made it possible. And so it was 
with the martyred millions in the beginning of the Church, 
as well as the host of martyrs before, during and after the 
reformation. 

Then He said to Peter “Follow Me.” Here too we are 
reminded of Peter’s former words, “Lord, why cannot I fol- 
low Thee now?” This was in answer to the statement of 
the Lord ‘‘Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; 
but thou shalt follow Me afterwards” (John xiii:36,37). 
The time for this had come and came still more fully when 
Peter died on the cross. It also may be looked upon as a 
renewed call to follow Him, not afar off, as he had done, 
but in closest fellowship. And into this He has called us 
all. 

Then Peter’s eye rested upon John and he said “Lord, 
and what shall this man do?’ By this question he evi- 
denced a loving interest in the beloved disciple with whom 
he had been more closely associated than with his brother 
Andrew. This interest in John made him curious to know 
his future destiny. The Lord answered him with a gracious 
rebuke. “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is this to 
thee? Follow thou Me.” He rebuked the curious anxiety 
of Peter and gave him to understand that He as the Lord 
and Master of John would order everything in John’s life 
as He had in the life of the questioner. What is this to 
thee? What good will it do you? The words “If I will 
that he tarry till I come’ have been differently interpreted. 
The Lord probably meant that John should be the last of 
His Apostles to pass from this earth, and that he was the 
chosen one who should behold in a great vision, as he did 
in Patmos, the end of the age, and the Lord’s return in judg- 
ment and in the establishment of His kingdom. Others 
have taken it as an hypothetical expression, that the Lord 
was just supposing to have him tarry till He comes. 

At once a tradition was started among the brethren that 
John should not die. Just a little word had been omitted, 
the little word “if.” The Lord did not say “I will that he 
tarry till I come”; or that John should not die. How much 
harm there has been done, and is being done today, by 


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 413 


wrong quotation of Scripture and building upon a perverted 
text, a misquoted saying, some unscriptural doctrine. And 
this saying did not die with the apostolic age. Solate as 
the sixteenth century an enthusiast was burned at Toulouse 
who claimed to be the Apostle John. 

The closing verses have been denied a Johanine author- 
ship by many scholars and critics. There is no valid reason 
for such a supposition. It was not an amanuensis, or a 
friend of the Apostle, who concluded this Gospel with the 
statements of the last two verses, but John himself. He 
bears a solemn declaration that he is the author of all this 
document contains. The beloved disciple wrote these 
things. This is sufficient evidence. When he wrote ‘‘we 
know that his testomony is true” he writes as he did in his 
epistles—we have heard—we have seen and we know. The 
last verse is a description of the quantity and value of 
Christ’s works and words. For the adoring John they 
seemed so wonderful, so vast in their meaning and so deep, 
that the world could not contain the books that might be 
written. 

We have reached the end of this blessed Gospel and we 
quote the late Bishop Ryle’s words with which he concluded 
his excellent exposition of John, from which we have fre- 
quently quoted. 

“Reader, I have now set before thee thy Saviour the 
Lord Jesus Christ, that very Son of God, who was be- 
gotten by the Father by an eternal and ineffable gener- 
ation, consubstantial and coequal with the Father in all 
things;—but in these last times, according to prophet- 
ical oracles, was incarnate for us, suffered, died, rose again 
from the dead, and was made King and Lord of all things. 
This is He who is appointed and given to us by God the 
Father, as the fullness of all grace and truth, as the Lamb of 
God who taketh away the sin of the world, as the ladder 
and door of heaven, as the serpent lifted up to render the 
poison of sin harmless, as the water which refreshes the 
thirsty, as the bread of life, as the light of the world, 
as the redeemer of God’s children, as the shepherd 
and door of the sheep, as the resurrection and the life, as 
the corn of wheat which springs up into.much fruit, as the 


414 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 


conqueror of the prince of this world, as the way, the truth, 
and the life, as the true vine, and finally, as the redemption, 
salvation, satisfaction, and righteousness of all the faithful 
in all the world, throughout all ages. Let us therefore 
pray God the Father, that, being taught by His Gospel, 
we may know Him that is true, and believe in Him in 
whom alone is salvation; and that, believing, we may feel 
God living in us in this world, and in the world to come 
may enjoy His eternal and most blessed fellowship.” Amen 
and Amen. 


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